https://www.wsj.com/articles/mixed-views-at-supreme-court-on-breadth-of-federal-law-on-computer-fraud-11606771221
Supreme Court Weighs Breadth of Computer Hacking Law
Officer allegedly used law-enforcement database for personal purposes in a case that has drawn widespread attention
The Supreme Court in Washington, D.C.Photo: brendan smialowski/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images
By Brent Kendall
WASHINGTON—When a Georgia police officer ran a license plate check in 2015 for an acquaintance who paid him for the favor, he received a felony conviction—and set the stage for a hotly debated Supreme Court case about the sweep of federal law on computer hacking.
The high court took up the officer's appeal on Monday to examine a thorny question about the decades-old Computer Fraud and Abuse Act: Breaking into a computer system is a clear violation, but what about when someone has legal access to a computer or database but violates the terms of use?