Fourth Circuit Votes to Rehear Its Geofence Warrant Case
I’ve blogged a lot about the recent geofence warrant cases in the Fourth Circuit and the Fifth Circuit, which reached opposite conclusions on whether access to geofence records is a search (and in the latter case, held all geofence warrants unconstitutional). Today the Fourth Circuit announced that will rehear its geofence warrant case, United States v. Chatrie, en banc. Meanwhile, the Fifth Circuit’s petition for rehearing is still pending.
While we’re at it, it’s interesting to ponder an aspect of modern Fourth Amendment litigation in play with these cases. Although the theoretical basis of the litigation is possible suppression of evidence—the defendants have filed motions to suppress—all the uncertainty about the law doesn’t mean there’s real uncertainty as to who will win. The reason is the good-faith exception to the exclusionary rule, which as a practical matter reserves suppression of evidence for particular violations—typically, ones that were clear ex ante. The scope of the good-faith exception to the
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