Judge denies Gmail search warrant

A federal judge in Silicon Valley took the unusual step of rejecting a routine e-mail search request, and suggested that Google and the government take steps to halt the now-routine practice in which tech companies hand over the entirety of their customer’s cloud-based computer accounts.

“The Technorati are … everywhere,” wrote US Magistrate Judge Paul Grewal. “And yet too few understand, or even suspect, the essential role played by many of these workers and their employers in facilitating most government access to private citizen’s data.”

The words introduced a six-page decision in which Judge Grewal refused to issue an order that would have forced Google to hand over the email account of a government employee suspected of corruption. Judge Grewal ordered the details of the investigation, including the name of the suspect, to be redacted but stated that the refusal order should be published.

Judge Grewal’s unusual order is also the latest flare-up in what the Washington Post styled the “Magistrate’s rebellion,” in which federal judges in multiple states have begun to balk about the scope of the search warrants that law enforcement agencies routinely demand.