Opinion ID: 409619
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Interlocutory Appeal Under Cohen and Abney

Text: 23 Nonparty appellants also contend that the district court's orders on suppression are appealable under application of the Cohen collateral order doctrine. With respect to the nonparties' motions to suppress, the trial court concluded that the nonparties lacked standing to file suppression motions. Because the nonparties' appeals raise unsettled questions of law regarding the standing of third parties to file suppression motions under Title III, because of the breadth of the surveillance at issue and because the nonparty appellants may not be able to obtain appellate review of their privacy claims at any point in the future, we conclude that the three-pronged test of Cohen has been satisfied and we accept jurisdiction over their appeals. Our consideration of the issues raised will neither halt nor disturb the orderly progress of the criminal proceeding. United States v. Hubbard, 650 F.2d 293, 314 (D.C.Cir.1980) (footnote omitted). We noted in the preceding discussion that the Second Circuit Court of Appeals declined to extend Cohen to apply to a defendant's interlocutory appeal of suppression orders involving electronic surveillance evidence. Bova v. United States, supra, 460 F.2d 404 (2d Cir. 1972). But Bova is distinguishable from our case, for we acknowledge jurisdiction only with respect to the district court's resolution of the unsettled question of the standing of these nonparties to file motions to suppress and do not reach, as the Bova court did, the merits of the district court's orders denying suppression. 10 24