In the case before the court, the United States charged defendant Qing Li with conspiracy to export defense articles without a license in violation of the AECA.

An undercover government agent corresponded with the defendant over the Internet, and the government's Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers later subpoenaed the defendant's ISP to obtain her log-in history and IP addresses.

The ISP, Microsoft's MSN/Hotmail program, provided the defendant's subscriber information and log-in histories, including the date, time, and IP address of each of the defendant's log-ins.

The defendant moved to suppress the evidence. It was protected by a reasonable expectation of privacy under the SCA, she argued, and the subpoenas were invalid.

The court did not agree.

The court rejected this argument. "The SCA does not support the distinction Defendant wishes to draw," Judge Jeffrey T. Miller wrote. Turning to the statute, the court looked to §2703(c)(2), which provides that a "provider of electronic communication service or remote computing service shall disclose to a governmental entity the name; address; local and long distance telephone connection records, or records of session times and durations" and other information, including "telephone or instrument number or other subscriber number or identity, including any temporarily assigned network address" pursuant to a valid subpoena.

"§2703(c)(2) specifically states that, when a governmental entity presents an authorized administrative subpoena, an electronic communication service provider must disclose information including, most pertinently, times and durations . . . and subscriber numbers and identities," the court said.

"Thus, even if the SCA does create a privacy interest in some aspects of electronic communications, it clearly does not communicate to subscribers or customers that they have a reasonable expectation of privacy in their IP addresses and log-in histories," the court concluded.

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