The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday sided with a police officer who accessed a license plate database via “improper purpose” and ruled he can’t be charged under federal law. In a 6–3 majority opinion written by Justice Amy Coney Barrett, the high court held that Georgia officer Nathan Van Buren did not violate the U.S.’s cyber-crime law when he searched a license plate database for non-law enforcement reasons. Van Buren had appealed a conviction under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act after a lower court had upheld a jury verdict against him. “This provision covers those who obtain information 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 Buren, have improper motives for obtaining information that is otherwise available to them,” Barrett wrote (pdf) in the order. Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, and John …