Appeals Court Weighing Validity Of Gov’t Request For Unencrypted Emails

Now-defunct email service Lavabit’s defense claiming that providing unencrypted missives to the court violates privacy was not as compelling to a three-judge panel of the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals as the question of why the company failed to comply with court orders. Lavabit is appealing a contempt-of-court charge brought against it after it refused to hand over unencrypted data for a single user, widely assumed to be NSA leaker Edward Snowden, and sought to present the case to the public as a government infringement on internet privacy. Instead, the judges sought to focus on the validity of court orders.