Microsoft is fighting a warrant issued by a federal judge for customer emails stored in servers located in Ireland. The U.S. government is seeking the data in connection to a drug-trafficking investigation.

A magistrate judge in New York originally ordered the warrant in December, but the Redmond corporation has refused to comply, arguing that to do so would raise significant constitutional, economic, and diplomatic problems for all U.S. companies that store data abroad.

No one disputes that the feds lack the constitutional authority to physically seize information in a foreign country based on a U.S. court order alone. The government asserts that for data stored electronically, different principles should apply, a troubling idea.

“The Government cannot seek and a court cannot issue a warrant allowing federal agents to break down the doors of Microsoft’s Dublin facility,” Microsoft attorneys wrote in court filings from June 6. “Likewise, the Government cannot conscript Microsoft to do what it has no authority itself to do, execute a warranted search abroad.”

The issue raises broader economic concerns as well.

“Microsoft and other US technology companies have faced growing mistrust and concern about their ability to protect the privacy of personal information located outside the United States,” wrote Microsoft attorneys. “The government’s position in this case further erodes that trust, and will ultimately erode the leadership of US technology companies in the global market.”

The software giant is not alone. Verizon filed an amicus brief in support of Microsoft this week.

“The search warrant at issue in this case is no run-of-the-mill investigative measure,” lawyers for Verizon argued. “If enforced, it would violate international understandings, harm American business, subject Americans to potential liability abroad, and invite foreign governments to unilaterally obtain electronic communications and data of Americans in the United States.”