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The NAM filed an amicus brief in the U.S. Supreme Court supporting Microsoft in its litigation against the Department of Justice (DOJ) stemming from a U.S. government warrant for access to e-mail stored by Microsoft on a server in Ireland. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit previously held that the Stored Communications Act does not authorize courts to enforce the warrant and that the government should follow the Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty adopted by Ireland the United States in 2001, but that ruling was appealed to the Supreme Court. Protection of confidential information is important to all businesses, including manufacturers. The NAM’s brief argued that enforcement of the warrant would harm economic and security interests and that the warrant, issued under the Stored Communications Act, could not compel Microsoft to produce information stored outside of the United States. In 2018, after the passage of the Clarifying Lawful Overseas Use of Data Act, the Supreme Court declared the case moot with a direction for the district court to vacate the ruling against Microsoft.