JAMES KLEISER, ET AL V. BENJAMIN CHAVEZ, ET AL

The third-party doctrine does not apply as an exception to the Fourth Amendment’s warrant requirement when the government seeks cell site location information. Carpenter v. United States, 138 S. Ct. 2206, 2219-21 (2018).

Plaintiffs appealed the district court’s grant of summary judgment in this 42 U.S.C. § 1983 action in favor of the Defendants. Plaintiffs argue that Carpenter v. United States, 138 S. Ct. 2206 (2018), and Wilson v. United States, 13 F.4th 961 (9th Cir. 2021), bar the Department’s use of Mr. Electric’s location information because, the cases extinguish the applicability of the private search exception of location information to the Fourth Amendment. The United States Courts of Appeal for both the Sixth and the Eighth Circuits have found that Carpenter does not apply in private search exception cases. United States v. Miller, 982 F.3d 412, 431 (6th Cir. 2020) found that “Carpenter asked only whether the government engaged in a ‘search’ when it compelled a carrier to search its records for certain information that the government demanded” and “did not cite, let alone address its private-search doctrine.” The third-party doctrine does not apply as an exception to the Fourth Amendment’s warrant requirement when the government seeks cell site location information. Carpenter v. United States, 138 S. Ct. 2206, 2219-21 (2018).The Court joined the Sixth and Eighth Circuit courts in holding Carpenter does not foreclose the availability of the private search exception when location information is involved. Affirmed.