There can also be jurisdictional issues where ISPs may be based in a different country to where the user lived.
The first kind of appeal "has long been understood to be jurisdictional," meaning that the deadlines for filing appeals are inflexible, Justice Alito said.
For instance, the allegation that a man was denied housing because he is gay and the landlord feared he would spread HIV to other tenants may be jurisdictional under the Fair Housing Act as discrimination based on a perceived disability (that is, HIV/Aids).
"If the indictment is dismissed, there's no question that the government's appeal will be heard by the Fourth Circuit," said one of the defense lawyers, Edward B. MacMahon Jr. "If the court imposed sanctions other than dismissal, there might be jurisdictional issues".
Justice Alito asked a number of questions suggesting that he did not believe the Anti-Injunction Act to be "jurisdictional," and if it is not, then the government's failure to raise the issue up to this point would forfeit any defense based on the Act".
"If you look at the nature of the waters that the Supreme Court determined to not be jurisdictional in those cases, in my view, those same waters would now be considered jurisdictional if you applied the new final rule to them," Rothschild said.
