In a noteworthy Thursday ruling, the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan said that Microsoft and other technology companies cannot be forced by the U.S. government to turn over customer emails stored on overseas servers.

The 3-2 ruling by the appeals court marks a significant win for Microsoft in a case which dates back to December 2013, when Microsoft objected to the U.S. government's search warrant for obtaining emails belonging to an unidentified Microsoft user who was under investigation.

In its objection to the search warrant, Microsoft had argued that the emails which the U.S. government was asking the company to turn over were stored on the company's server in Ireland. Microsoft also asserted that the U.S. government did not have any authority to conduct email searches in other countries.

Siding with Microsoft and rebuking U.S. government's efforts to access emails stored on Microsoft's Ireland-based server, Circuit Judge Susan Carney said communications held by U.S. service providers on overseas servers do not fall within the reach of domestic search warrants issued under the 1986 federal law, the Stored Communications Act.

Hailing the court's ruling as a victory for privacy rights as well as for the tech and media companies that supported its legal battle, Microsoft said in a statement that the court's verdict "ensures that people's privacy rights are protected by the laws of their own countries."