It’s not often that a case in our practice area reaches the Supreme Court of the United States, so we are genuinely excited!
In Van Buren v. United States, No. 19-783, the U.S. Supreme Court will have a chance to resolve (finally) the circuit split regarding the scope of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. Some circuits (the 2nd, 4th and 9th) take a narrow view of the CFAA, allowing claims against employees who lacked any authorization to access information stored on computers, but not allowing claims against employees who were permitted access and misused that access for allegedly improper purposes. Other circuits (the 1st, 5th, 7th, and 11th) permit CFAA claims against employees for misusing information stored on the computer even though they otherwise were authorized to access such material. We have posted about this circuit split previously.
Jackson Lewis’s Non-Competes and Protection Against Unfair Competition practice group, in conjunction our Privacy, Data and Cybersecurity practice group, published an article explaining the Van Buren case and its potential impact.
We currently have a nation of employees working remotely. Regardless of the ultimate outcome at the Supreme Court, employers should consider reviewing and clarifying now their policies concerning which employees have access to what data. We will monitor the Van Buren case and provide updates.