Cert Petition in Thomas V. United States, No. 18-1344

Abstract

In United States v. Leon, the U.S. Supreme Court created a “good-faith” exception to the exclusionary rule, which allows the admission of illegally obtained evidence if “the officers’ reliance on the magistrate’s determination of probable cause was objectively reasonable.” 468 U.S. 897, 926 (1984). The lower courts are split, however, over what information a court deciding a motion to suppress may consider in determining whether the officer’s reliance was reasonable. This cert petition argues that a suppression court cannot consider information known by the officer at the time she applied for a warrant but that she never disclosed to the issuing magistrate. Professor Ortiz helped draft it in his capacity as director of the University of Virginia School of Law’s Supreme Court Litigation Clinic.

Keywords: exclusionary rule, good-faith exception, Leon