Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/20pdf/19-783_k53l.pdf
Page Number: 5.0

Cite as:  593 U. S. ____ (2021) 

1 

Opinion of the Court 

NOTICE:  This opinion is subject to formal revision before publication in the 
preliminary  print  of  the  United  States  Reports.  Readers  are  requested  to 
notify the Reporter of Decisions, Supreme Court of the United States, Wash-
ington, D. C. 20543, of any typographical or other formal errors, in order that 
corrections may be made before the preliminary print goes to press. 

SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES 

_________________ 

No. 19–783 
_________________ 

NATHAN VAN BUREN, PETITIONER v. 
UNITED STATES 

ON WRIT OF CERTIORARI TO THE UNITED STATES COURT OF 
APPEALS FOR THE ELEVENTH CIRCUIT 

[June 3, 2021]

 JUSTICE BARRETT delivered the opinion of the Court. 
Nathan  Van  Buren,  a  former  police  sergeant,  ran  a 
license-plate  search  in  a  law  enforcement  computer  data-
base in exchange for money.  Van Buren’s conduct plainly 
flouted his department’s policy, which authorized him to ob-
tain  database  information  only  for  law  enforcement  pur-
poses.  We  must  decide  whether  Van  Buren  also  violated 
the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act of 1986 (CFAA), which 
makes  it  illegal  “to  access  a  computer  with  authorization
and to use such access to obtain or alter information in the 
computer  that  the  accesser  is  not  entitled  so  to  obtain  or 
alter.” 

He did not.  This provision covers those who obtain infor-
mation  from  particular  areas  in  the  computer—such  as
files, folders, or databases—to which their computer access 
does not extend.  It does not cover those who, like Van Bu-
ren, have improper motives for obtaining information that 
is otherwise available to them. 

I 
A 

Technological advances at the dawn of the 1980s brought