Dontae Small v. United States

In Riley v. California, 573 U.S. 373 (2014), this Court held that the “search incident to arrest” exception to the Fourth Amendment’s warrant requirement permits warrantless searches of the physical aspects of a cell phone but not its digital contents. The question presented is whether, consistent with Riley, the “abandonment” exception to the Fourth Amendment’s warrant requirement permits warrantless searches of the digital contents of an abandoned cell phone.

Whether evidence that assailants pointed a gun at a victim and patted his pockets, without more, supports an inference that the robbers intended “to cause death or serious bodily harm” under the carjacking statute, 18 U.S.C. § 2119, when the assailants did not harm the victim even though he repeatedly rebuffed their commands, and there is no evidence that the gun was loaded, discharged, or even operational.