Gabriel Werdene v. United States
FourthAmendment CriminalProcedure
Whether the good-faith exception to the exclusionary rule applies when a warrant is void from the outset due to the issuing authority's lack of jurisdiction
QUESTIONS PRESENTED The government sought, and received from a U.S. Magistrate Judge sitting in the Eastern District of Virginia, a warrant permitting it to search—at its discretion—any computer throughout the world that accessed a server under government control in that district. The Third Circuit held the warrant invalid under the Fourth Amendment and Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 41(b), but declined to order suppression of the resulting evidence based on a determination that government agents acted in good faith. The questions presented are: I. Whether the good-faith exception to the exclusionary rule applies when a warrant is void from the outset due to the issuing authority’s lack of jurisdiction. IL. Assuming the good-faith exception applies, whether under the circumstances of this case it was objectively reasonable for government agents to rely on a warrant purporting to authorize discretionary searches of tens of thousands of unspecified computers throughout the world. i