Adobe Systems Inc. has won a First Amendment challenge to an indefinite gag order prohibiting the company from disclosing a U.S. government request for customer information stored in the cloud.
In an opinion from late March which was recently unsealed and posted to the Central District of California’s website, U.S. Magistrate Judge Frederick Mumm in Los Angeles wrote that a notice preclusion order, or NPO, Adobe received as part of a search warrant for cloud-stored data prevented the company from notifying anyone, including the investigation’s target, about the warrant’s existence indefinitely. “The government does not contend, and has made no showing, that Adobe’s speech will threaten the investigation in perpetuity,” Mumm wrote. “Therefore, as written, the NPO manifestly goes further than necessary to protect the government’s interest.”
