Microsoft’s ongoing case with the US government has taken lots of twists and turns since the FBI first demanded that Microsoft hand over data stored on one of its servers in Ireland. The case has been dubbed as historic, given that Microsoft paints it as a People vs. Government landmark situation at a time in which the public is asked to trust in cloud privacy.

Microsoft was at first ordered to hand over the data in one court, but the company won an appeal in July in the Second Circuit Court of Appeals in New York . The judge ruled that the Stored Communications Act could not be used to force Microsoft to share the data.

The original criminal case, which the FBI says involves international drug smuggling, is of very little consequence here. What matters is that if the government wins, it sets a precedent wherein the government has control over data kept by private companies. Brad Smith, president and chief legal officer of Microsoft, said if the courts take his company’s side, that “tells people they can indeed trust technology as they move their information to the cloud.”

Among the public and business world, Microsoft is widely seen as the victim in this case. The company has not surprisingly been backed by some of the tech industry’s biggest hitters, including Apple, Google and Amazon.com, which have signed a friend of the court brief in support of Microsoft.

But that support group has just dramatically widened and now includes many unlikely candidates, including the likes of Fox News. Microsoft has also been backed by the Washington Post, the National Newspaper Association, National Public Radio, the American Civil Liberties Union, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the National Association of Manufacturers, Delta Air Lines Inc., Eli Lilly and Co. and BP America.

The list also contains five law enforcement officials who had formerly worked for the FBI or Justice Department in Washington, according to an article in Reuters.

So why suddenly all this support from eclectic industries? Because it’s not just a tech issue, it’s a human rights issue, one in which Microsoft says the government is attempting to breach the First and Fourth Amendments, relating to a US citizen’s privacy and free speech.

Smith at least saw some levity in the events, joking that Fox News and the American Civil Liberties Union are rarely seen on the same side. In the same statement, Smith said, “We believe the constitutional rights at stake in this case are of fundamental importance, and people should know when the government accesses their emails unless secrecy is truly needed.”

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