In its suit, filed Thursday morning in Federal District Court in Seattle, Microsoft's home turf, the company asserts that the gag order statute in the Electronic Communications Privacy Act of 1986 — as employed today by federal prosecutors and the courts — is unconstitutional.
During the brief reign of Edward VIII, in 1936, the order's statutes were amended to admit ladies.
The editions of the Order's statutes, two in Latin and two in German, established similar requirements for membership.
Until 1476, there were no limits on the number of companions to be admitted, but that year, with the new edition of the Order's statutes, the Duke limited the number of men to 60; unlimited women could be admitted.
When James VII revived the Order, the statutes stated that the Order would continue the ancient number of Knights, which was described in the preceding warrant as "the Sovereign and twelve Knights-Brethren in allusion to the Blessed Saviour and his Twelve Apostles".
John Napier Tye, a former state department official who became a reluctant whistleblower in 2014, warning of NSA dragnets, said: "Obama and Bush could have set the best possible privacy protections in place, but the trouble is, it's all set by executive order, not statute.
That means no state can issue an order or statute that denies equal protection to all its citizens.
Under the bill, attorneys could essentially void injunctions or restraining orders blocking statutes by filing an appeal within 10 days.
No other institution but the Court, however, has the power of judicial review to strike down executive orders and statutes that the parliament passes.
