Filed: Oct. 18, 2018
Latest Update: Mar. 03, 2020
Summary: FILED United States Court of Appeals Tenth Circuit UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS October 18, 2018 Elisabeth A. Shumaker TENTH CIRCUIT Clerk of Court UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Plaintiff - Appellee, v. No. 15-3313 (D.C. No. 5:13-CR-40060-DDC-10) ANTHONY CARLYLE THOMPSON, (D. Kan.) Defendant - Appellant. _ UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Plaintiff - Appellee, No. 15-3324 v. (D.C. No. 5:13-CR-40060-DDC-1) (D. Kan.) ALBERT DEWAYNE BANKS, Defendant - Appellant. ORDER AND JUDGMENT * Before TYMKOVICH, Chief
Summary: FILED United States Court of Appeals Tenth Circuit UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS October 18, 2018 Elisabeth A. Shumaker TENTH CIRCUIT Clerk of Court UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Plaintiff - Appellee, v. No. 15-3313 (D.C. No. 5:13-CR-40060-DDC-10) ANTHONY CARLYLE THOMPSON, (D. Kan.) Defendant - Appellant. _ UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Plaintiff - Appellee, No. 15-3324 v. (D.C. No. 5:13-CR-40060-DDC-1) (D. Kan.) ALBERT DEWAYNE BANKS, Defendant - Appellant. ORDER AND JUDGMENT * Before TYMKOVICH, Chief J..
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FILED
United States Court of Appeals
Tenth Circuit
UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS October 18, 2018
Elisabeth A. Shumaker
TENTH CIRCUIT Clerk of Court
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,
Plaintiff - Appellee,
v.
No. 15-3313
(D.C. No. 5:13-CR-40060-DDC-10)
ANTHONY CARLYLE THOMPSON, (D. Kan.)
Defendant - Appellant.
_____________________________
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,
Plaintiff - Appellee,
No. 15-3324
v. (D.C. No. 5:13-CR-40060-DDC-1)
(D. Kan.)
ALBERT DEWAYNE BANKS,
Defendant - Appellant.
ORDER AND JUDGMENT *
Before TYMKOVICH, Chief Judge, MATHESON and MORITZ, Circuit
Judges. **
*
This order and judgment is not binding precedent except under the
doctrines of law of the case, res judicata and collateral estoppel. It may be cited,
however, for its persuasive value consistent with Fed. R. App. P. 32.1 and 10th
Cir. R. 32.1.
**
After examining the supplemental briefs filed in these matters, this
(continued...)
This matter is before us on remand from the Supreme Court. See Thompson
v. United States,
138 S. Ct. 2706 (2018); Banks v. United States,
138 S. Ct. 2707
(2018).
Anthony Carlyle Thompson and Albert Dewayne Banks were arrested and
charged with conspiracy to distribute more than 280 grams of cocaine base and
multiple counts of distribution of cocaine base. The government received an
order of disclosure for Thompson’s and Banks’s historical cell-service location
information (CSLI) as part of the process for determining whether certain
intercepted phone calls were admissible at trial. The government received this
order under the Stored Communications Act, 18 U.S.C. § 2703(d), which allowed
the government to obtain a court order for disclosure of CSLI after making a
showing of reasonable suspicion.
The district court ruled that cell phone users have no reasonable
expectation of privacy in their CSLI, so historical cell-site orders under § 2703(d)
do not violate the Fourth Amendment. Alternatively, the district court ruled that
even if the Fourth Amendment did apply to CSLI, the government had presented
sufficient evidence to support a search warrant based on probable cause.
**
(...continued)
three-judge panel has determined unanimously that oral argument would not be of
material assistance in the determination of this appeal. See Fed. R. App. P. 34(a);
10th Cir. R. 34.1(G).
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On appeal, Thompson and Banks contended the district court erred in
granting the government’s application for historical CSLI and in admitting that
CSLI at a pretrial evidentiary hearing. They argued in their separate appeals that
§ 2703(d) is unconstitutional because collecting CSLI constitutes a search. The
Fourth Amendment, therefore, would require the government to procure a warrant
before obtaining a cell phone user’s historical CSLI.
In both cases we affirmed the district court’s ruling that cell phone
customers have no reasonable expectation of privacy in CSLI. United States v.
Thompson,
866 F.3d 1149 (10th Cir. 2017); United States v. Banks, 706 Fed.
Appx. 455 (10th Cir. 2017). We read the Supreme Court’s business-record cases
as foreclosing Thompson’s and Banks’s argument, reasoning that a person does
not have a reasonable expectation of privacy in business records he voluntarily
turns over to a third party. We also stated in Thompson, however, that “we
wholeheartedly recognize that Thompson raises valid concerns about the
application of the third-party doctrine in the digital age. But until the Supreme
Court instructs us otherwise, we are bound to follow its third-party doctrine
precedents.”
Thompson, 866 F.3d at 1154.
The Supreme Court has now instructed us otherwise. While petitions for
certiorari were pending in Thompson and Banks, the Supreme Court decided
Carpenter v. United States,
138 S. Ct. 2206 (2018). In that case the Court held
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that “[t]he Government’s acquisition of the cell-site records was a search within
the meaning of the Fourth Amendment,” largely based on “the unique nature of
cell phone location information.”
Id. at 2220. The Supreme Court then granted,
vacated, and remanded Thompson and Banks to this court to reevaluate the cases
in light of Carpenter. See
Thompson, 138 S. Ct. at 2706;
Banks, 138 S. Ct. at
2707.
We ordered supplemental briefing from the parties to determine the effect
of Carpenter on the two cases. After briefing we are persuaded that Carpenter
supercedes our holding that the historical cell-site orders in Thompson and Banks
did not violate the Fourth Amendment.
We therefore remand the cases to the district court to determine whether its
a lternative holding survives Carpenter and for further proceedings consistent with
the Supreme Court’s decision. The mandate shall issue forthwith.
ENTERED FOR THE COURT
Timothy M. Tymkovich
Chief Judge
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