In United States v. Davis, No. 12-12928 (11th Cir. June 11, 2014), the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit held, inter alia, that the Fourth Amendment required that law enforcement obtain a search warrant to obtain from a cellphone provider cell site tracking information pertaining to a subject’s phone. The court reasoned that even though that information was held by a third party and not the defendant, and even though it tracked the defendant’s movements in public spaces, it nevertheless could reveal facts that society would consider “private” and so was protected by the Fourth Amendment. In this month’s column, I will test the soundness of that reasoning.
The Opinion
According to the opinion, a jury found that the defendant and co-defendants had committed numerous gunpoint robberies. The co-defendants testified, along with numerous eyewitnesses. Surveillance footage from some of the locations was admitted, as was the defendant’s DNA, recovered from a getaway car.
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