X Corp., formerly Twitter, has finally scored a win in its decade-long free speech fight against the federal government.
In 2023, a magistrate judge issued a year-long nondisclosure order prohibiting X from "disclosing subpoenas, warrants, or court orders for customer records" it received from the Justice Department (DOJ). In 2024, X received a subpoena from the DOJ demanding the personal information of former FBI agents Kyle Seraphin and Garrett O'Doyle, who testified before Congress about the FBI's politically motivated targeting of certain groups, according to the company's Global Government Affairs team. X sued the agency, arguing that the order violated Section 2705(b) of the Stored Communications Act (SCA). In 2024, a district court upheld that order. Last week, in an opinion filed by Judge Bradley Garcia, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals reversed that earlier ruling, siding with X and finding that the nondisclosure order sought by the Justice Department violated the SCA.
The SCA prohibits service providers from sharing consumer records and electronic communications "with any person or entity, but contains exceptions, such as when the government compels the information," explains the Congressional Research Service. Sections 2703 and 2705(b) of the SCA are key to the case. Section 2703 outlines the government's burden of proof for compelling record sharing, while Section 2705(b) dictates the process for non-disclosure orders, which can delay customer notification.
