CFAA and the High Court’s Fight Against Overcriminalization

On June 3, the U.S. Supreme Court decided Van Buren v. United States, holding that the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, or CFAA, only reaches computer users "who obtain information from particular areas in the computer ... to which their computer access does not extend."

The court rejected the government's more expansive interpretation, which would have punished people who "have improper motives for obtaining information that is otherwise available to them." The court ruled in the defendant's favor by a 6-3 vote, in an opinion by Justice Amy Coney Barrett.

To continue reading Harry Sandick and Jacob Chefitz' article in Law360, please click here.