In United States v. Braddy, No. 19-12823 (Aug. 31, 2021) (Rosenbaum, Lagoa, Ed Carnes), the Court affirmed the denial a motion to suppress. First, the Court held that the officer had reasonable suspicion make the traffic stop after observing bicycles obstructing the car’s Florida license plate.  The defendant argued that Alabama traffic law did not apply to him as a non-resident Florida driver.  The Court held that, regardless of whether the defendant’s interpretation of Alabama law was correct, the officer’s interpretation by the officer was objectively reasonable. Second, the Court held that the officer did not unlawfully prolong the traffic stop.  The officer’s questions about the driver’s travels plans and itinerary, as well as the address on his license and ownership of the vehicle, were ordinary inquiries related to the purpose of the stop.  A dog sniff of the car also did not unlawfully prolong the stop because the sniff was conducted while the officer was still waiting for a warrant check to come back before issuing a warning. Third, the drug-sniffing dogs were sufficiently reliable to provide probable cause to search the car.  The district court did not clearly err by crediting the officers’ testimony about the dogs’ training [...]

In In re: Sealed Searched Warrant and Application for a Warrant by Telephone or Other Reliable Electronic Means (United States v. Korf et al.), No. 20-14223 (Aug. 30, 2021) (Martin, Rosenbaum, Luck) (per curiam), the Court upheld the denial of a motion to enjoin the use of a government filter team. The government executed a search warrant at a suite of offices, and included in the materials seized were those from the office of an in-house attorney.  Relying on Rule 41(g), the clients intervened and sought an injunction prohibiting the government’s filter team—consisting of government attorneys and staff who were not involved in the investigation—from reviewing any potentially privileged documents without their consent or court approval.  On appeal, the Court first concluded that it had appellate jurisdiction because the intervenors sought only the return of their property, not invalidation of the seizure, and that was sufficiently independent of any forthcoming criminal judgment.  However, the Court found no abuse of discretion in denying the request for injunctive relief because the intervenors could not show a substantial likelihood that they would succeed on their claim that a government filter team per se violates their rights, or that the filter protocol in place [...]

In Mitchell v. Duvall County et al., No. 19-14505 (Aug. 26, 2021) (Branch, Grant, Tjoflat), the Court re-affirmed that it clearly violates the First Amendment for prison officials to open an inmate’s legal mail outside of his presence. https://media.ca11.uscourts.gov/opinions/pub/files/201914505.pdf http://defensenewsletter.blogspot.com/

In United States v. Gonzalez, No. 19-14381 (Aug. 19, 2021) (Jordan, Newsom, Tjoflat), the Court affirmed the denial of a motion for a reduced sentence under Section 404 of the First Step Act. Joining two other circuits, and accepting the government’s concession, the Court held that a sentence imposed upon revocation of supervised release can be reduced where the underlying offense is a “covered offense.”  However, the Court affirmed the denial of the motion because the district court’s alternative discretionary denial was supported by the record and 3553(a) factors.  The Court declined to follow a Seventh Circuit decision (and arguably Fourth and Sixth Circuit decisions) categorically requiring the district court to calculate and consider the defendant’s new guideline range before exercising discretion under Section 404(b). Judge Tjoflat concurred because he was bound by precedent, but he believed that, because the text of Section 404 includes no standard guiding the district court’s discretion, the court of appeals cannot review discretionary denials at all. https://media.ca11.uscourts.gov/opinions/pub/files/201914381.pdf http://defensenewsletter.blogspot.com/

In United States v. Coats, No. 18-13113 (Aug. 12, 2021) (Martin, Newsom, Julie Carnes), the Court, in a 75-page opinion, affirmed the defendant’s felon in possession conviction and affirmed his ACCA sentence. As to the conviction, the Court found no plain error under Rehaif.  Although the district court committed error that was plain by accepting his guilty plea without advising him of the mens rea element, he could not establish prejudice, as required by the Supreme Court’s recent decision in Gary, because he made no attempt to show that he would have proceeded to trial but for the Rehaif error, and he had numerous prior felony convictions. As to the sentence, the Court held that the defendant’s 2003 Georgia burglary conviction qualified under the ACCA’s enumerated clause.  In an extensive discussion, the Court rejected the defendant’s argument that Georgia’s “party to a crime” statute, which included aiding and abetting liability, rendered his offender non-generic.  Georgia law required an accomplice to burglary to take affirmative action and to intend to facilitate the crime, as required by the generic standard for aiding and abetting articulated by the Supreme Court in Rosemond. Finally, the district court did not err by declining to grant [...]