On remand from the U.S. Supreme Court, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit reaffirmed a California district court’s order preliminarily enjoining LinkedIn from denying hiQ.
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Supreme Court Narrows Federal Anti-Hacking Law to Exclude Enforcement Against Those Who Use Otherwise Authorized Access for Improper Purpose
There is a well-worn legal maxim that hard cases make bad law. In deciding
Van Buren v. United States today, the Supreme Court was faced with the opposite problem: bad laws[i] make hard cases. Specifically, in a 6-3 decision, the Court found that the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act ( CFAA ) does not extend to an individual s accessing information over the internet for an improper purpose, so long as the individual would be entitled to access for a proper purpose. There s no question that interpreting the opaquely-worded CFAA forced the Court to choose between two bad options, with a parade of horribles on both sides; it chose the option that clearly decriminalizes everyday behavior (but also would allow abusive use of access that individuals have solely for work purposes).
In
Van Buren v. United States, the Supreme Court faced the difficult task of determining whether the opaquely-written Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (“CFAA”) would apply to situations in which a person who was authorized to access information for work purposes had accessed that information for improper reasons. In one of Justice Barrett’s first opinions, the six-justice majority found that it would not. Justice Thomas, joined by Chief Justice Roberts and Justice Alito, dissented because he believed it should.
The
Van Buren case began when a financially-troubled sergeant in the Cumming, Georgia police department befriended a known criminal. Sergeant Van Buren decided to leverage that friendship by asking for a loan (falsely claiming it was to pay off medical bills). But his friend wasn’t all that friendly – he went to the county sheriff’s office and reported that Sergeant Van Buren was shaking him down. The FBI got involved and ultimately created a sting opera