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A federal appeals court ruled Wednesday that law enforcement can legally scan or swipe a seized credit card—in fact, it is not a Fourth Amendment search at all, so it doesn’t require a warrant.
In the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals’ 15-page opinion, swiping a card does not constitute a physical search, as the magnetic stripe simply contains the same information obviously visible on the front of the card. Plus, the defendant, Eric-Arnaud Benjamin Briere De L'Isle, couldn’t have had a reasonable privacy interest in the card, the court concluded, because he would have tried to use it when he tried to buy something, thereby giving up privacy interests to a third party (the issuing bank).
According to court records in United States v. De L’Isle, the case began in June 2014 when Eric-Arnaud Benjamin Briere De L'Isle was driving westbound on I-80 and was pulled over by a Seward County, Nebraska, sheriff’s deputy.
The deputy, Sgt. Michael Vance, pulled over De L’Isle (also known as “Briere”) for following too close to a tractor-trailer. As Sgt. Vance approached the car, he noticed the distinct “odor of burnt marijuana” coming from within the car, and he observed three air fresheners hanging from the rear-view mirror. After questioning De L’Isle, Sgt. Vance suspected that the driver might have drugs, so he deployed his drug-sniffing dog.
While no drugs were located, the law enforcement agent found and seized:
…51 credit, gift, and debit cards in a duffel bag located in the vehicle’s trunk. Ten of the cards were American Express credit cards, all bearing Briere’s name, with different account numbers embossed on the fronts of the cards. A number of the debit and gift cards also had account numbers embossed on them, but none bore Briere’s name. Some of the cards were in wrapping utilized by the issuing company to display the cards in retail stores.
Later, upon further investigation by the Secret Service and the Department of Homeland Security, “The agents discovered the magnetic strips on the back of the 10 American Express credit cards in Briere’s name contained no account holder identification or account information which exists on legitimate American Express cards when they are issued.”
(Score: 2, Insightful) by kurenai.tsubasa on Thursday June 16 2016, @12:08AM
Very well.
As I said up there. Problem #1: dubious reason for the stop. Problem #2: dubious reason for the drug dog.
I'll concede that the chain of evidence works as the law is currently right up until the issue in question, provided that the cop had a very lucky day and was 100% honest. However, the data on the magnetic stripes was not representative of what was stamped on the credit cards. Therefore, I would argue that it was not in plain view, as this opinion seems to assert. However, the suspicious nature of the find would have constituted probable cause for a warrant for further search of the magstripe data after a five minute phone call to the on call judge.
Why didn't they make that five minute phone call in accordance with the fucking law?