United States v. DE L'Isle, No. 15-1316 (8th Cir. 2016)
Annotate this CaseDefendant was convicted of possession of fifteen or more counterfeit and unauthorized access devices. On appeal, defendant challenged the district court's denial of his motion to suppress information discovered by law enforcement after officers seized credit, debit, and gift cards from defendant's vehicle and scanned the cards' magnetic strips. The court affirmed the district court's judgment and concluded that scanning the magnetic strips on the cards was not a physical intrusion into a protected area prohibited by the Fourth Amendment; defendant failed to show that he had a reasonable expectation of privacy in the information in the magnetic strip; even if defendant had an actual, subjective expectation of privacy, the interest is not one society is prepared to endorse; and therefore, there was no search within the meaning of the Fourth Amendment. Because all of the information in the magnetic strip should have been identical to the information in plain view on the front of the card, and where the cards were lawfully possessed by law enforcement officers and established to be counterfeit, the court cannot conclude that defendant had a privacy interest warranting further investigation into potential Fourth Amendment protections.
Court Description: Beam, Author, with Riley, Chief Judge, and Kelly, Circuit Judge] Criminal case - Criminal law. Officers' action in scanning the magnetic strips on debit, credit and gift cards seized from defendant's vehicle was not a physical intrusion into an area protected by the Fourth Amendment; defendant failed to show he had a reasonable expectation of privacy in the information in the magnetic strip and the search did not implicate the Fourth Amendment. Judge Kelly, dissenting.
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