Navigation

Archive | Warrants

Monday, September 30th, 2024

Second Circuit holds that search of an SD card inserted in a cell phone was authorized by a warrant to search the cell phone.

In United States v. Tompkins, No. 22-599 (2d Cir. Sept. 23, 2024)(Livingston, Menashi and Kahn), U.S. Marshalls obtained a warrant to search the defendant’s cell phone for evidence of his failure to register as a sex offender. They arrested him and took his cell phone to search it, but could not open it without the pin number. The found an SD card inserted into the back of the phone and searched that, finding child pornography. They obtained another warrant to search for child pornography, searched again, and found more child pornography on the SD card. Tomkins argued that the warrant did not authorize a search of the cell phone because it did not include the SD among the property to be searched. The Circuit disagreed, holding that the SD card was covered by the warrant’s language, in the “information” to be searched section, “including any form of …

Posted by
Categories: Warrants

Posted By
Categories: Warrants

Continue Reading
Thursday, August 15th, 2019

Circuit Upholds, On Good Faith Grounds, A Search Warrant Issued By An Out-of-District Magistrate In Violation of Former Rule 41(b)and 28 U.S.C. §636(a).

United States v. Eldred, No. 17-3367-cr (August 9, 2019) involved a Network Investigative Technique warrant, essentially a government hacking tool that penetrates an anonymous “dark” web site to gain identifying data from computers communicating with the site. The warrant was issued by a magistrate judge in Virginia, but was used to obtain the IP address of a computer in Vermont, which agents subsequently seized. Eldred argued that the warrant was void because it violated the since-amended Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 41(b) (limiting the authority of a magistrate-judge to issue warrants to persons and property within her district) and 28 U.S.C. 636(a)(limiting the jurisdiction of magistrates to the district in which they sit).

Rule 41 (b) was amended in 2016 to specifically allow this type of warrant. However, the Court acknowledged that the old Rule applied here and that Section 636(a) arguably provided independent statutory ground for suppression in …

Posted by
Categories: Fourth Amendment, good faith, Warrants

Posted By
Categories: Fourth Amendment, good faith, Warrants

Continue Reading