4 ms·

Why is Lavabit, based out of Texas, appealing in the Fourth Circuit (Maryland, West VA, Virginia, North and South Carolina)?

• dspillett 13y ago
  Same reason more patent cases are taken to east Texas: some states seem more favourable than others to certain parties in certain types of case.
  • MWil 13y ago
    Patent cases are civil, you can absolutely choose where you want to go, correct. I can't imagine the same is true for which jurisdiction the government uses in handing down a NSL...as I type this I wonder if it came out of Maryland though...
• speeder 13y ago
  Because NSA, CIA, etc... are in Maryland and Virginia?
  • MWil 13y ago
    Jurisdiction works on the defendant, not the plaintiff/prosecution (or rather, it's waived for them since they chose to initiate the action). So yes, if the NSA and CIA already have proof that Lavabit serves some minimum amount of customers in those states then it would be proper to bring it in that federal district. But it seems like they a) wouldn't have the proof needed until they got access to lavabit's assets or b) if they had the proof, they wouldn't need formal access to lavabit's assets Kind of a circular problem but of course since we don't know what he's appealing and why... Edit: Actually they could just use credit card information to establish customers so nvm Edit2: Now that I've read a copy of the search warrant linked by someone else in this thread, I see what's going on