Adobe Systems Inc. has won a First Amendment challenge to an indefinite gag order prohibiting the company from disclosing a U.S. government request for customer information stored in the cloud.

In an opinion from late March which was recently unsealed and posted to the Central District of California's website, U.S. Magistrate Judge Frederick Mumm in Los Angeles wrote that a notice preclusion order, or NPO, Adobe received as part of a search warrant for cloud-stored data prevented the company from notifying anyone, including the investigation's target, about the warrant's existence indefinitely. “The government does not contend, and has made no showing, that Adobe's speech will threaten the investigation in perpetuity,” Mumm wrote. “Therefore, as written, the NPO manifestly goes further than necessary to protect the government's interest.”

Mumm's ruling requires federal prosecutors to show that disclosure of the warrant's existence could have certain undesirable effects to extend the gag order beyond 180 days. It follows a February decision from U.S. District Judge James Robart of the Western District of Washington allowing a lawsuit brought by Microsoft Inc. to move forward challenging the statute underpinning indefinite gag orders more broadly.