United States v. Davis (2014)
This article's lead section may be too short to adequately summarize the key points. (December 2014) |
United States v. Davis | |
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Supreme Court |
United States v. Quartavious Davis is a United States federal legal case that challenged the use in a criminal trial of location data obtained without a
Quartavious Davis, on trial with five co-defendants, was convicted on several counts of Hobbs Act robbery, conspiracy, and knowing possession of a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence and sentenced to over 161 years in prison. He appealed on several grounds, principally arguing that the court admitted stored cell site location information obtained without a warrant, in violation of his Fourth Amendment rights. The government had obtained the data under a provision of the Stored Communications Act that only requires showing "that there are reasonable grounds to believe that the... records or other information sought, are relevant and material to an ongoing criminal investigation." (18 U.S.C. § 2703(d)). That provision does not require showing probable cause, which would have been needed for a warrant.[4]
Eleventh Circuit ruling
The Circuit Court largely relied on precedent set in Smith v. Maryland and U.S. v. Miller, which established the Third Party Doctrine.
By relying on this precedent, the court said that Davis had no reasonable expectation of privacy in his Cell Site Location Data, as it did not meet the two questions put forth in Katz to establish reasonable expectation. First, has the individual manifested a subjective expectation of privacy in the object of the challenged search? Second, is society willing to recognize that expectation as reasonable?[2]
18 U.S.C. § 2703(d) Contains a provision that allows for the collection of data like that used in this case via a special court order, often referred to as a "D-order". These orders allow for the collection of more data than a subpoena would, but less than a warrant. As a tradeoff, these "D-orders" require less than probable cause to obtain.
Because of its perceived similarity to Miller and Smith, the court declared, "Based on the SCA and governing Supreme Court precedent, we too conclude the government's obtaining a § 2703(d) court order for the production of MetroPCS's business records did not violate the Fourth Amendment"[2] and "Davis can assert neither ownership nor possession of the third-party's business records he sought to suppress".[2]
Background
The government attempted to distinguish cell phone tracking by pointing out that it has long been established that telephone users do not have an
The 11th Circuit held "that cell site location information is within the subscriber's reasonable expectation of privacy. The obtaining of that data without a warrant is a Fourth Amendment violation." Despite finding that the evidence was obtained in an unconstitutional manner, the court denied "appellant's motion to exclude the fruits of that electronic search and seizure under the 'good faith' exception to the exclusionary rule recognized in United States v. Leon," noting that the data was obtained under a court order, though not a warrant.[4](p.23 ff)
See also
- Carpenter v. United States – Supreme Court ruling that the Government's acquisition of a weeks worth of cell-site records is a Fourth Amendment search.
- Riley v. California - subsequent Supreme Court ruling that warrantless search and seizure of the digital contents of a cell phone during an arrest is unconstitutional
References
- Vox Media, Inc. Retrieved 14 June 2014.
- ^ a b c d United States v. Quartavious Davis (11th Cir. 5 May 2015), Text.
- ^ Ruger, Todd. "Supreme Court Passes on Cell Phone Tracking Case". Roll Call. Retrieved 2015-11-10.
- ^ a b c d David Bryan Sentelle, C.J. (11 June 2014). "United States of America v. Quartavious Davis – No. 12-12928 – D.C. Docket No. 1:10-cr-20896-JAL-2" (PDF). Retrieved 2014-12-14.