In this conspiracy case, one defendant moved for a new trial arguiing that that use of his cell site location information violated the Fourth Amendment in light of Carpenter.
The incidents in this case occurred well before Carpenter came down in 2018. The Defendant was indicted originally in 2015 was others. He was tried alone and found guilty only of attempted possession with intent to distribute cocaine in violation of 21 U.S.C. § 846.
At post-trial motions, the defendant argued that the acquisition of his CSLI violated the Fourth Amendment. In this case, several phones were recovered revealing the location information for several individuals. The Court first held that this Defendant had no standing to contest the CSLI of other individuals because he lacks an expectation of privacy in other’s phones.
When it came to his own location information, the Court invoked the good faith exception. The Court correctly notes that the Supreme Court has applied the good faith exception to reliance on judicial decisions, holding that “searches conducted in objective reasonable reliance on binding appellate precedent are not subject to the exclusionary rule.” (Davis v. United States). Citing Third Circuit precedent of In re Application of United States for an Order Directing a Provider of Elec. Commc’n Serv. to Disclose Records to Gov’t, 620 F.3d 304, 313 (3d Cir. 2010); United States v. Stimler, 864 F.3d 253, 266 (3d Cir. 2017), reh’g granted, opinion vacated in part sub nom. United States v. Goldstein, 864 F.3d 253, 2018 WL 4139784 (3d Cir. 2018), the Court denied the Motion.
The case is United States v. Anthony, 354 F. Supp. 3d 607,
2018 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 209896, 2018 WL 6574185 (E.D. PA) December 13, 2018.