{"id":46730,"date":"2021-01-06T13:50:52","date_gmt":"2021-01-06T18:50:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/?p=46730"},"modified":"2021-01-10T21:53:32","modified_gmt":"2021-01-11T02:53:32","slug":"ca5-affidavit-for-sw-for-cell-phone-photos-didnt-show-pc-for-drug-trafficking","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/?p=46730","title":{"rendered":"CA5: Affidavit for SW for cell phone photos didn’t show PC for drug trafficking"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The affidavit for the search warrant for defendant\u2019s cell phone for evidence of drug trafficking and not just personal use did not permit a search of the photographs on the phone for evidence of drug trafficking. The good faith exception also does not apply because the application for the warrant is facially deficient. United States v. Morton<\/a>, 2021 U.S. App. LEXIS 195 (5th Cir. Jan. 5, 2021):<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

In this appeal, we are asked to determine whether the good faith exception to the Fourth Amendment’s exclusionary rule allows officers to search the photographs on a defendant’s cell phones for evidence of drug possession, when the affidavits supporting the search warrants were based only on evidence of personal drug possession and an officer’s generalized allegations about the behavior of drug traffickers–not drug users. We hold that the officers’ affidavits do not provide probable cause to search the photographs stored on the defendant’s cellphones; and further, we hold that the good faith exception does not apply because the officers’ reliance on the defective warrants was objectively unreasonable. And while respecting the “great deference” that the presiding judge is owed, we further hold that he did not have a substantial basis for his probable cause determination with regard to the photographs. We thus conclude that the digital images found on Morton’s cellphones are inadmissible, and his conviction is therefore VACATED.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Reason.com: Volokh Conspiracy: Remarkable New Fifth Circuit Decision Limiting Cell Phone Searches<\/a> by Orin Kerr (“Remarkable but wrong, I think — although, in my view, the correct result in this case for other reasons.”)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The affidavit for the search warrant for defendant\u2019s cell phone for evidence of drug trafficking and not just personal use did not permit a search of the photographs on the phone for evidence of drug trafficking. The good faith exception … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-46730","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cell-phones","category-probable-cause"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46730","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=46730"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46730\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":46812,"href":"http:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46730\/revisions\/46812"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=46730"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=46730"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=46730"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}