Aaron M. Richardson v. United States

The government obtained Mr. Richardson’s cell site location information (CSLI) without a warrant pursuant to the Stored Communications Act, 18 U.S.C. §§ 2703(c) and (d). Throughout the course of Mr. Richardson’s pre-trial proceedings, trial, and appeal, he sought the suppression of that evidence under the Fourth Amendment. The trial court denied Mr. Richardson’s motion to suppress. On appeal, the Eleventh Circuit affirmed that denial in light of its decision in United States v. Davis, 785 F.3d 498, 513 (11th Cir. 2015) (en banc), which held that obtaining cell site location records under the Stored Communications Act was not a search within the meaning of the Fourth Amendment. Mr. Richardson petitioned for rehearing with the Eleventh Circuit in light of this Court’s expected decision in Carpenter v. United States. The Court then issued its decision in Carpenter v. United States, 585 U.S. ___, 138 S. Ct. 2206 (2018), holding that the government must generally obtain a search warrant before obtaining an individual’s CSLI, but the Eleventh Circuit denied Mr. Richardson’s petition shortly thereafter. The question presented is: Whether this Court should grant, vacate, and remand the Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit’s decision denying defendant’s request to suppress CSLI obtained without a warrant in light of this Court’s recent opinion in Carpenter v. United States, 585 U.S. ___, 138 S. Ct. 2206 (2018).