Here, the Federal District Court of Nevada denied a motion to suppress cell site location records for the defendant, invoking the good faith exception despite the lack of any Ninth Circuit controlling precedent that existed prior to Carpenter v. United States.
The defendant here is charged with interference with commerce by robbery, brandishing a firearm, and conspiracy to interfere with commerce by robbery based on the armed robbery of two jewelry stores. In response to the Post-Carpenter motion to suppress arguments, the government argued that the statute and the court order meant that law enforcement was acting in good faith.
The District Court cites Davis v. United States, stating that “the exclusionary rule’s deterrent purpose is not fostered when evidence is “obtained during a search conducted in reasonable reliance on binding precedent” (emphasis is mine). The Court then equated the signed SCA order to binding precedent that does not exist in the Ninth Circuit to reach the conclusion that the good faith exception applies.
The Court, in a footnote, relies on precedents from other Circuits to rule that the good faith exception applies.
I assume that this opens the floodgates for the defense to use favorable precedents from other Circuits to get evidence suppressed.
The case is United States v. Wright, 2018 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 179013, Dist. Nevada, October 18, 2018.