Whether the good-faith doctrine applies to digital-age general warrants

This case involves a “geofence warrant” that authorized a dragnet search of millions of Google users’ Location History data. The Fifth Circuit correctly held that such warrants are categorically unconstitutional, just like the reviled “general warrants” that gave rise to the Fourth Amendment. Still, the court upheld the convictions based upon these warrants under the “good faith” doctrine. (App. 37) (citing United States v. Leon , 468 U.S. 897 (1984)). Application of the good -faith doctrine here undermines fundamental Fourth Amendment protections by eroding the prohibition on general warrants and incentivizing the government’s reckless use of digital surveillance technologies before judges have the opportunity to evalu ate their constitutionality. The question presented is: Whether the good -faith doctrine applies to digital -age general warrants . ii PROCEEDINGS BELOW The United States instituted this criminal action for robbery and conspiracy to commit robbery of a United States mail carrier in the United States District Court for the No rthern District of Mississippi on October 27, 2021 , styled United States v. Jamarr Smith, Thomas Iroko Ayodele aka “Roko”, and Gilbert McThunel II, case no. 3:21 -CR-107-SA-RP. Re levant to this petition, Smith, Ayodele and McThunel filed a motion to suppress evidence that was decided by the district court on February 10, 2023. That decision is reproduced in the