CA11 (en banc): Abandonment is a 4A standing issue, not an Art. III standing issue

“Sometimes courts make simple mistakes. And simple mistakes call for simple fixes. Just so here. In United States v. Sparks, we held that a suspect who ‘abandons’ his privacy or possessory interest in the object of a search or seizure suffers no ‘injury’—and thus has no standing—in the Article III sense, and, accordingly, that an argument asserting the suspect’s abandonment is jurisdictional, nonwaivable, and subject to sua sponte consideration. 806 F.3d 1323, 1341 n.15 (11th Cir. 2015). Sitting en banc, we now overrule Sparks and hold, to the contrary, that a suspect’s alleged abandonment implicates only the merits of his Fourth Amendment challenge—not his Article III standing—and, accordingly, that if the government fails to argue abandonment, it waives the issue.” United States v. Ross, 2020 U.S. App. LEXIS 19642 (11th Cir. June 24, 2020) (en banc).