Opinion ID: 62
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Scope of the Actual Search

Text: The Government's alternative argument is that, even if the affidavit were not incorporated into the warrant, its lack of particularity was cured because the affidavit accompanied the warrant, and the search was confined to the narrower scope of the affidavit. See, e.g., Leveto, 540 F.3d at 211. However, the Government waived this argument by failing to raise it before the District Court. A suppression argument raised for the first time on appeal is waived unless good cause is shown. See United States v. Rose, 538 F.3d 175, 182 (3d Cir. 2008). Thus we must first determine if the argument was raised before the District Court or, in the alternative, if the Government has shown good cause for failing to raise the argument earlier. In Groody we recognized that other Courts of Appeals allow two exceptions to the general rule requiring that the affidavit be incorporated into the warrant. 361 F.3d at 240. The first exception allows a court to reference an unincorporated affidavit when the warrant contains an ambiguity or a clerical error that could be clarified by the affidavit. Id. The second exception provides that an unincorporated affidavit can cure an overly broad warrant if the actual search is restricted to the narrower scope of the affidavit. Id. We declined to apply the second exception in Groody because the case involved an affidavit and an actual search that were broader in scope than the terms of the warrant. Id. at 241. We emphasized the distinction between allowing an unincorporated affidavit to broaden, rather than limit, the scope of the search permitted by the warrant. Id. ([T]he officers seek to use the affidavit to expand, rather than limit, the warrant. That makes all the difference.... [I]t is one thing if officers use less than the authority erroneously granted by a judge. It is quite another if officers go beyond the authority granted by the judge. (emphases in original)). But in our case, the Government did not argue before the District Court that the warrant could be cured by the narrower affidavit and the actual search even if the affidavit were not incorporated into the warrant. A footnote in the District Court's memorandum opinion shows that the Court did not believe this argument was before it. See United States v. Tracey, No. 1:08-126, 2008 WL 2622908, at  n. 4 (M.D.Pa. June 30, 2008) (We do not explore whether Ortega-Jimenez and cases like it might allow us to rely on the unincorporated affidavit[,] as the government does not argue that incorporation is not necessary, preferring instead to contend that incorporation in the application is all that is needed.). This argument is thus waived unless the Government can show good cause for its failure to raise it. See Rose, 538 F.3d at 182. The Government argues that it had good cause because United States v. Leveto  the first decision in our Court upholding the use of the second exception discussed in Groody  was filed after the District Court's opinion in Tracey. See Leveto, 540 F.3d at 211-12. However, the Government easily could have distinguished Groody in its argument to the District Court before Leveto was issued. Even a cursory review of Groody reveals that it recognized the exception at issue, but concluded that it could not be applied to expand the scope of a warrant. See 361 F.3d at 240-41. Our opinion in Groody provided the Government with the authority it needed to make this argument, but it failed to do so. The Government has not shown a good reason for this failure, and, accordingly, its argument is waived on appeal. See Rose, 538 F.3d at 182.