Court Opinion

ID: 9893588
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-10-27 20:00:37.281282+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:04:35.925276
License: Public Domain

USCA11 Case: 21-13092    Document: 57-1      Date Filed: 10/27/2023   Page: 1 of 26

                                                              [PUBLISH]
                                    In the
                 United States Court of Appeals
                         For the Eleventh Circuit

                           ____________________

                                 No. 21-13092
                           ____________________

        UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,
                                                       Plaintiﬀ-Appellee,
        versus
        KEVIN MCCALL,

                                                    Defendant-Appellant.

                           ____________________

                  Appeal from the United States District Court
                      for the Southern District of Florida
                    D.C. Docket No. 0:20-cr-60100-KMW-1
                           ____________________
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        2                      Opinion of the Court                 21-13092

        Before ROSENBAUM, BRANCH, and BRASHER, Circuit Judges.
        BRASHER, Circuit Judge:
                This appeal requires us to decide how the exclusionary rule’s
        good faith exception applies to the search of a cloud storage ac-
        count. While losing in a high-stakes poker game, Kevin McCall al-
        legedly used his cell phone to arrange an armed robbery to reclaim
        his losses. Because a cell phone was directly tied to the crime, no
        one disputes that there was probable cause to search that device.
        But the police went one step further. They secured a warrant to
        search an iCloud account that backed up the phone twelve hours
        before the poker game and robbery. The iCloud warrant permitted
        a search of almost all the account’s data with no time limitation.
        Based on evidence secured by that warrant, the government pros-
        ecuted and a jury convicted McCall of being a felon in possession
        of a firearm.
               Given the warrant’s breadth and the account’s indirect link
        to the crime, McCall argues that the district court should have sup-
        pressed the iCloud evidence for three reasons. First, he argues that
        the warrant affidavit was so lacking in indicia of probable cause that
        no reasonable officer would believe that he had probable cause to
        search the iCloud account. Second, he argues that the warrant was
        so facially deficient in its particularity that the executing officers
        could not have reasonably presumed it to be valid. And third, as a
        catchall, he argues that the warrant and its supporting affidavit
        were so defective that the executing officer’s reliance on the war-
        rant was objectively unreasonable.
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        21-13092               Opinion of the Court                          3

                Although Fourth Amendment standards are largely settled,
        their application to developing areas of technology is not. Like
        judges, law enforcement officers operating in good faith may strug-
        gle to apply existing standards to new circumstances. That is where
        the exclusionary rule’s good faith exception comes in. The govern-
        ment concedes that the iCloud warrant fell short in certain re-
        spects, but it argues that reasonable officers could have believed it
        to be valid. We agree that the warrant was not so deficient in prob-
        able cause, particularity, or otherwise that it would be unreasona-
        ble for an officer to rely on it in good faith. Accordingly, we affirm.
                                       I.

                                       A.

               Around midnight on April 11, 2020, McCall was playing
        poker with four other men at a private residence. As the poker
        game progressed, McCall began losing large sums of money. Be-
        coming increasingly frustrated with his losses, he “made threats to
        do something about it.” The group saw McCall “frantically using
        his cell phone to make calls/texts to unknown persons,” and he
        eventually “received a phone call and stepped outside,” explaining
        that “he needed to take care of something.”
              Soon after, there was a knock at the door. One of the poker
        players saw McCall standing outside. But, when he opened the
        door for McCall, two masked men wielding a rifle and a handgun
        stormed inside. They ordered everyone to the ground and grabbed
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        4                      Opinion of the Court                  21-13092

        the cell phones and cash on the poker table. The masked men shot
        two of the poker players and escaped with the cash and cell phones.
                Three days later, McCall was arrested on two counts of at-
        tempted felony murder and four counts of armed robbery. Detec-
        tive Keith Rosen applied for a warrant to search McCall’s iPhone.
        In his supporting affidavit, the detective stated that, based on the
        sworn statements of all the victims involved, he “had probable
        cause to believe that McCall’s listed cell phone . . . was used to con-
        tact the unidentified (masked) armed black male suspects and facil-
        itate the offenses listed above.” He believed that a search of the cell
        phone would help him “identify” the unknown gunmen. Although
        a judge issued the cell phone warrant, it proved largely useless be-
        cause the locked cell phone required a passcode that the detective
        did not have. Still, the detective did manage to extract the name of
        the iCloud account associated with the phone and the date and
        time of the last data backup.
               Based on that information, he applied for a warrant to search
        McCall’s iCloud account. Along with the information provided in
        the cell phone affidavit, the iCloud affidavit explained that the de-
        tective “knows from law enforcement training and experience”
        that Apple provides a backup record of an iCloud user’s data. He
        acknowledged that the most recent backup of McCall’s cell phone
        occurred about twelve hours before the poker game. But he ex-
        plained that he “knows from law enforcement training and experi-
        ence that criminal activity is often planned prior to the act and the
        aforementioned data from the iCloud account may reveal relevant
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        21-13092               Opinion of the Court                        5

        witnesses and/or coconspirators to the offenses listed above, as
        well as photos of items used in the incident (clothing, guns, cars).”
        For example, internet searches could show the “planning or exe-
        cuting” of the offenses, journal entries could confirm McCall’s “in-
        tent, involvement or motive,” and notes could store the cell
        phone’s passcode.
               A judge issued the warrant and ordered a two-step process
        for conducting the search. First, acknowledging that Apple had “no
        reasonable means to distinguish evidence of the crimes from any
        other records contained within the sought-after account,” the war-
        rant ordered Apple to “provide the entirety of the [account] rec-
        ords” to law enforcement. Second, the warrant required that offic-
        ers receiving the data sort through it for evidence of the specified
        crimes. The warrant authorized officers to search seven broad cat-
        egories of data, essentially encompassing the entirety of McCall’s
        iCloud account: the device’s registration information, its iCloud
        data (including all email content, photos, documents, contacts, and
        calendars), Find My iPhone data, communications records, iCloud
        backup history, Facetime communication logs, and iTunes account
        information.
               Apple emailed the detective the iCloud backup data, which
        spanned about two-and-a-half months leading up to the robbery.
        Supervisor of the Digital Forensics Unit James KempVanEe then
        processed the data, discovering photographs and videos of McCall,
        a felon, holding a 9-millimeter semi-automatic pistol. The photo-
        graphs dated back to the month before the robbery. He flagged the
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        6                      Opinion of the Court                21-13092

        images for the detective, who then referred the case to federal of-
        ficers.
                                       B.

              Based on the images recovered from the iCloud account,
        McCall was charged with being a felon in possession of firearms
        and ammunition in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(1). He moved to
        suppress the evidence seized from his iCloud account.
               During the suppression hearing, Detective Rosen explained
        his process for preparing the iCloud warrant application. He had
        never prepared an application to search a cell phone or cloud ac-
        count. So he modified a standard form application for that purpose.
        Before submitting the application to the judge, he asked his super-
        visor and an assistant state attorney to review the document. He
        also consulted two other detectives and a forensics supervisor.
               The detective testified that he hoped to uncover two kinds
        of evidence by searching the iCloud account. First, he thought a
        search could reveal the identities of the gunmen that McCall appar-
        ently summoned with his cell phone during the poker game. Based
        on the recovered shell casings, he determined that the gunmen
        used 9-millimeter and .40-caliber guns, which he also hoped to
        identify in photographs. He acknowledged that, because the most
        recent iCloud backup occurred twelve hours before the incident,
        the data covered by the warrant could not possibly include any calls
        or text messages McCall sent or received during the poker game.
        But he explained that, in his experience, crimes are often planned
        in advance using cell phones. There was thus a “distinct possibility”
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        21-13092                Opinion of the Court                          7

        that McCall had communicated with the gunmen before that even-
        ing. Second, the detective explained that people often store iPhone
        passcodes in their notes or photographs. So he believed the iCloud
        search could reveal information allowing officers to unlock the cell
        phone.
               Forensics supervisor KempVanEe also testified at the sup-
        pression hearing, describing how he is able to filter electronic data
        in certain ways, such as limiting the production of data to commu-
        nications, messages, and phone calls. He could also “possibly” re-
        duce the production of communications to only “a certain time pe-
        riod.” Compared to most iCloud searches, the supervisor stated
        there was comparatively little communications and photographic
        data in McCall’s iCloud account. He explained that the warrant at
        issue looked much like the fifty or so iCloud warrants he had pro-
        cessed before and that he had “[no] reason to believe there was not
        probable cause for the execution of the warrant.” He explained
        that, although he seeks to educate officers on proper electronic
        search protocols, “technology is constantly changing.”
               The district court denied McCall’s motion to suppress. The
        court concluded that the iCloud warrant was invalid because, even
        though it was supported by probable cause, it lacked sufficient par-
        ticularity. Still, the court explained that “this is clearly an evolving
        area of the law,” and determined that the good faith exception to
        the exclusionary rule applied. McCall conditionally pleaded guilty
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        8                      Opinion of the Court                  21-13092

        and was sentenced to 27 months’ imprisonment. His plea agree-
        ment preserved his right to appeal the suppression decision, and he
        timely filed a notice of appeal.
                                       II.

               A district court’s denial of a suppression motion raises a
        “mixed question of law and fact.” United States v. Blake, 868 F.3d
        960, 973 (11th Cir. 2017) (quotation omitted). “We review de novo
        whether the good faith exception applies,” but we review “the un-
        derlying facts upon which that determination is based” for clear er-
        ror. United States v. Morales, 987 F.3d 966, 974 (11th Cir.), cert. de-
        nied, 142 S. Ct. 500 (2021) (quotation omitted).
                                       III.

               The Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution
        requires that “no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause,
        supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the
        place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.” U.S.
        Const. amend. IV. It is silent, however, on the proper remedy
        when its probable cause or particularity requirements are violated.
        Morales, 987 F.3d at 972. In part to provide a remedy, the Supreme
        Court created the exclusionary rule, which generally prohibits the
        government from relying on evidence obtained in violation of the
        Fourth Amendment. See United States v. Leon, 468 U.S. 897 (1984).
              In practice, however, the exclusionary rule applies in only
        “unusual cases.” Id. at 918. This remedy “exacts a heavy toll on
        both the judicial system and society at large” because “[i]t almost
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        21-13092               Opinion of the Court                          9

        always requires courts to ignore reliable, trustworthy evidence.”
        Davis v. United States, 564 U.S. 229, 231, 237 (2011). It is therefore
        limited to situations in which the threat of its application can deter
        future violations. Herring v. United States, 555 U.S. 135, 139–41
        (2009). Because good-faith mistakes cannot be deterred, the exclu-
        sionary rule applies only if “the police exhibit deliberate, reckless,
        or grossly negligent disregard for Fourth Amendment rights.” Da-
        vis, 564 U.S. at 238. In “doubtful or marginal cases,” suppression is
        inappropriate. United States v. Ventresca, 380 U.S. 102, 109 (1965).
                Consistent with the rule’s objective of future deterrence, the
        Supreme Court carved out a “good faith exception” to the exclu-
        sionary rule. Leon, 468 U.S. at 908. “[W]e have observed that alt-
        hough good faith is most often framed as an exception to the ex-
        clusionary rule, it is probably more accurately described as a reason
        for declining to invoke the exclusionary rule in the first place.”
        United States v. Campbell, 26 F.4th 860, 870 n.5 (11th Cir.) (en banc),
        cert. denied 143 S. Ct. 95 (2022) (quotation omitted). “[W]hen law
        enforcement officers have acted in objective good faith or their
        transgressions have been minor, the magnitude of the benefit con-
        ferred on such guilty defendants offends basic concepts of the crim-
        inal justice system.” Leon, 468 U.S. at 908.
               This “exception” has special relevance when officers act pur-
        suant to a warrant. “In the ordinary case, an officer cannot be ex-
        pected to question” a judge’s decision that the requirements for a
        warrant have been satisfied or that the form of the warrant is suffi-
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        10                      Opinion of the Court                  21-13092

        cient. Id. at 921. Therefore, suppressing evidence discovered pur-
        suant to a warrant generally “cannot logically contribute to . . . de-
        terrence.” Id.
               Nonetheless, there are circumstances when the good faith
        exception will not apply. Even if an officer relies on a warrant in
        subjective good faith, an officer’s reliance must be objectively rea-
        sonable. Morales, 987 F.3d at 974 (quoting United States v. Martin,
        297 F.3d 1308, 1318 (11th Cir. 2002)). The good faith exception can-
        not save a search if the warrant was “based on an affidavit ‘so lack-
        ing in indicia of probable cause as to render official belief in its ex-
        istence entirely unreasonable.’” Leon, 468 U.S. at 923 (quoting
        Brown v. Illinois, 422 U.S. 590, 610–11 (1975) (Powell, J., concurring
        in part)). It likewise does not apply when a warrant is “so facially
        deficient—i.e., in failing to particularize the place to be searched or
        things to be seized—that the executing officers cannot reasonably
        presume it to be valid.” Id.
                McCall does not contest that the officers relied on the war-
        rant in subjective good faith—he does not argue, for example, that
        anyone lied to get the warrant. Instead, he argues that the officers’
        reliance on the warrant was not objectively reasonable in three
        ways. First, he contends that the iCloud affidavit was so lacking in
        indicia of probable cause that official belief in its existence was un-
        reasonable. Specifically, McCall argues that because there was no
        sign that evidence of the robbery would be on the account, and the
        data was last backed up hours before the crime, it was unreasona-
        ble for Detective Rosen to believe the affidavit established probable
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        21-13092                Opinion of the Court                         11

        cause to search the account. Second, he argues that the warrant
        was so facially deficient in its particularity that the executing offic-
        ers could not have reasonably presumed it to be valid. Because the
        warrant requested all data, unbound by subject matter or date,
        McCall argues that no reasonable officer would believe the warrant
        was sufficiently particular. Third, as a catchall, he argues that the
        circumstances of the warrant and search establish that a well-
        trained officer would have known the search was unconstitutional
        despite the judge’s approval.
                Before diving into McCall’s arguments, it’s worth noting at
        the outset that technology moves quickly, the law moves slowly,
        and the combination can leave law enforcement officers with little
        insight on how to investigate a cloud account. We will assume
        without deciding that law enforcement must secure a warrant be-
        fore searching an iCloud account that is held by a third party. See
        Carpenter v. United States, 138 S. Ct. 2206 (2018). Even so, when
        asked to review searches for cloud data, courts have approached
        issues of probable cause and particularity in different ways. See Jon-
        athan Mayer, Government Hacking, 127 Yale L. J. 570, 620–21 (2018).
        Because courts struggle to decide how probable cause and particu-
        larity apply to the information that law enforcement collects from
        a cloud account, it is unsurprising that police officers might strug-
        gle as well. It is against this backdrop that we consider McCall’s
        position that the officers were not justified in relying on this war-
        rant to search the iCloud account.
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        12                     Opinion of the Court                 21-13092

                                       A.

                We will start with McCall’s argument that the warrant was
        based on an affidavit that so obviously lacked probable cause that
        the officers could not have reasonably relied on it. Probable cause
        requires “a fair probability that contraband or evidence of a crime
        will be found in a particular place.” Illinois v. Gates, 462 U.S. 213,
        238 (1983). It is not a mathematical standard—it is a “practical, non-
        technical conception” based on “the factual and practical consider-
        ations of everyday life on which reasonable and prudent men, not
        legal technicians, act.” Id. at 231 (quotations omitted). Courts give
        a “commonsense” rather than “hypertechnical” reading to search
        warrant applications when reviewing probable cause. Id. at 236.
        And we “give great deference to a lower court’s determination of
        probable cause.” United States v. Carroll, 886 F.3d 1347, 1351 (11th
        Cir. 2018) (quoting United States v. Bradley, 644 F.3d 1213, 1263
        (11th Cir. 2011)).
               The parties dispute whether there was actual probable cause
        to search McCall’s iCloud account. McCall contends the affidavit
        lacked any indication that officers would find evidence of the rob-
        bery on the iCloud account. Accordingly, the affidavit failed to link
        the iCloud account to the crime under investigation. The govern-
        ment responds that it was reasonable to believe the iCloud account
        would contain evidence of the robbery. Because conversations and
        images on the iCloud account could identify the gunmen, the gov-
        ernment argues that a search of the account would likely provide
        leads to law enforcement.
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        21-13092               Opinion of the Court                         13

                We need not decide whether the iCloud warrant violated
        the Fourth Amendment. Even if it did, the good faith exception ap-
        plies to close calls and threshold cases. Messerschmidt v. Millender,
        565 U.S. 535, 556 (2012). We will therefore assume, without decid-
        ing, that the detective lacked probable cause to search McCall’s
        iCloud account. The question before us now is whether the defects
        in the affidavit were so obvious that the good faith exception
        should not apply. That is, McCall must establish that the iCloud
        warrant is “based on an affidavit ‘so lacking in indicia of probable
        cause as to render official belief in its existence entirely unreasona-
        ble.’” Leon, 468 U.S. at 923 (quotation omitted).
                We look only to the face of the affidavit to determine
        whether it lacked sufficient indicia of probable cause. United States
        v. Robinson, 336 F.3d 1293, 1296 (11th Cir. 2003). To exclude evi-
        dence on this ground, the affidavit must be so clearly insufficient
        “that it provided ‘no hint’ as to why police believed they would find
        incriminating evidence.” Morales, 987 F.3d at 976. There is a “sound
        presumption that the [judge] is more qualified than the police of-
        ficer to make a probable cause determination.” Malley v. Briggs, 475
        U.S. 335, 346 n.9 (1986) (quotations omitted). Accordingly, the of-
        ficer’s judgment must be more than just “mistaken”—it must be so
        “plainly incompetent,” Messerschmidt, 565 U.S. at 553, that “no of-
        ficer of reasonable competence would have requested the war-
        rant,” Malley, 475 U.S. at 346 n.9.
              We cannot say McCall has met this standard. The affidavit
        supporting the iCloud warrant provides an obvious link between
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        14                     Opinion of the Court                21-13092

        McCall’s cell phone and the crime. The affidavit explains that the
        four victims gave sworn statements to law enforcement that
        McCall became increasingly angry and threatened to “do some-
        thing” about his mounting losses. The victims told law enforce-
        ment that, after making that threat, McCall “frantically” used his
        cell phone to communicate with some “unknown persons” until
        he eventually “stepped outside” to “take care of something.” After
        McCall knocked on the door, masked gunmen rushed into the res-
        idence, shot two poker players, and stole cash and phones. The af-
        fidavit therefore supplies sufficient indicia of probable cause that
        McCall used his cell phone to arrange the robbery and that the
        phone contained information that would identify the gunmen.
               Given the established link between the cell phone and the
        crime, the affidavit also ties the cell phone’s associated iCloud ac-
        count to the crime. The affidavit explains that although the cell
        phone’s passcode thwarted a full search, law enforcement found an
        iCloud storage account associated with the device. The affidavit
        told the judge that Apple’s default iCloud service automatically
        backs up data from Apple devices, including messages and images
        on a cell phone. It disclosed that the last data backup occurred
        twelve hours before the poker game. But the affidavit relied on the
        detective’s “law enforcement training and experience that criminal
        activity is often planned prior to the act.”
              McCall argues that the link between the iCloud account and
        crime is obviously too attenuated because the iCloud account was
        backed up twelve hours before the crime occurred. We disagree. If
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        21-13092               Opinion of the Court                        15

        there is probable cause to believe that McCall summoned the gun-
        men to the scene to commit a robbery, then there is probable cause
        to believe that he had a preexisting relationship with them. It is not
        unreasonable to believe that such a relationship would be reflected
        in the data stored in his iCloud account. “Cell phones have become
        important tools in facilitating coordination and communication
        among members of criminal enterprises, and can provide valuable
        incriminating information about dangerous criminals.” Riley v. Cal-
        ifornia, 573 U.S. 373, 401 (2014). Despite the twelve-hour delay, the
        affidavit provides reason to suspect that the communications data
        in McCall’s iCloud account would help reveal the gunmen’s iden-
        tities.
                McCall also argues that, even if the affidavit provided suffi-
        cient indicia of probable cause to search his iCloud data for com-
        munications, there were not similarly sufficient indicia of probable
        cause to search other categories of data as well. But, if McCall had
        a preexisting relationship with the gunmen, law enforcement had
        good reason to search for more than just communications. Photo-
        graphs or videos could contain images of the men or the items used
        in the crime, such as the firearms or masks. And the affidavit ex-
        plained that, based on the investigator’s experience, the iCloud ac-
        count could also have information about the phone’s password.
        Moreover, “[c]ommunications stored in the cloud can take a wide
        variety of forms, including text messages, email, photos, videos,
        files, browsing history, phone backups, and more.” Ian Walsh, Re-
        vising Reasonableness in the Cloud, 96 Wash. L. Rev. 343, 367–68
        (2021). For example, people take screenshots of text messages or
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        16                     Opinion of the Court                 21-13092

        use applications to send and save photographs with communica-
        tive text captions typed over an image. So, if law enforcement of-
        ficers have a good reason to search for communications, they may
        be justified in reviewing more than just emails and text messages.
               Finally, we have identified probable cause for an electronic
        search in similar circumstances. In United States v. Blake, officers
        identified an email address posting ads for prostitution services and
        located the email’s associated Facebook account. 868 F.3d at 966.
        Because the Facebook page listed the defendant’s occupation as
        “Boss Lady at Tricks R Us,” officers obtained search warrants to
        search “virtually every type of data that could be located in a Face-
        book account.” Id. (alteration adopted). We approved the search.
        We reasoned that the listed occupation “Boss Lady” linked the de-
        fendant’s account to the criminal conspiracy, giving investigators
        “probable cause to believe that evidence of her participation would
        be found in her Facebook account.” Id. at 973.
               The affidavit linking McCall’s cell phone to his cloud ac-
        count is like the link investigators made in Blake. As in Blake, the
        investigators here had a logical process when connecting the al-
        leged crime to the searchable data. That is, they had probable cause
        to believe that McCall used his phone to organize the crime, and
        his iCloud account backed up that phone’s data. We recognize that
        there are factual differences between the two cases—in Blake, there
        was an ongoing conspiracy, whereas the robbery appeared to be a
        one-off event. But the connection between McCall’s iCloud ac-
        count and the cell phone used to facilitate the robbery is at least as
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        21-13092                Opinion of the Court                         17

        strong as the link between the Blake defendant’s Facebook account
        and the prostitution conspiracy. Id. At the very least, the similarities
        between these two cases are enough to conclude that any defects
        in probable cause were not obvious enough to negate the good
        faith exception.
               We cannot say that the absence of probable cause in the
        iCloud affidavit—assuming there was such an absence—is so obvi-
        ous that an officer could not reasonably rely on the warrant.
                                        B.

               We turn now to whether the warrant identified the items to
        be searched and seized with sufficient particularity. The Fourth
        Amendment requires a warrant to “particularly” describe “the
        place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.” U.S.
        Const. amend. IV. The Fourth Amendment’s particularity require-
        ment sought to remedy the evils of the “general warrant,” which
        permitted officers’ exploratory rummaging in colonial America.
        Blake, 868 F.3d at 973; see also Coolidge v. New Hampshire, 403 U.S.
        443, 467 (1971) (explaining that particularity does not guard against
        “intrusion per se,” but against “a general, exploratory rummaging
        in a person’s belongings”). Still, the requirement must “be applied
        with a practical margin of flexibility, depending on the type of prop-
        erty to be seized,” and the property description need only be “as
        specific as the circumstances and nature of activity under investiga-
        tion permit.” United States v. Wuagneux, 683 F.2d 1343, 1349 (11th
        Cir. 1982). A warrant does not have to be elaborate. Carroll, 886
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        18                     Opinion of the Court                  21-13092

        F.3d at 1351. Rather, it need only be as narrow as reasonably ex-
        pected “given the state of the [investigator’s] knowledge . . . and
        the nature and extent of criminal activities under investigation.”
        Wuagneux, 683 F.2d at 1350.
                 Although it isn’t clear how an iCloud warrant should iden-
        tify the target of the search with particularity, see, e.g., Walsh, Re-
        vising Reasonableness, 96 Wash. L. Rev. at 358, there are generally
        two types of limitations that can particularize such a warrant. The
        first is narrowing the search based on the subject matter of the data.
        For example, a warrant may limit investigators’ search of commu-
        nications data to only communications with known or suspected
        co-conspirators. See Blake, 868 F.3d at 974. The second is a temporal
        limitation. Officers can narrow their search by requesting data only
        for the time when an individual is suspected of planning or partici-
        pating in criminal activity. Id.
               Of course, a subject-based limitation may not mean a cate-
        gory-based limitation. For example, a warrant limiting a search to
        communications between a suspect and his coconspirator—a sub-
        ject-based limitation—does not require that the only categories of
        searchable data be instant messages or emails. As we’ve already
        said, communications between individuals may be stored in vari-
        ous data formats, including voice memos, shared notes folders, or
        screenshots of prior conversations in an images folder. Criminals
        may even change file extensions or otherwise hide files in a format
        different from their native format. See Aaron J. Gold, Obscured by
        Clouds: The Fourth Amendment and Searching Cloud Storage Accounts
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        21-13092               Opinion of the Court                        19

        Through Locally Installed Software, 56 Wm. & Mary L. Rev. 2321,
        2328–29 (2015) (explaining that limiting searches to only certain file
        types “might not be feasible given the realities of digital storage”).
                 Because the same content can be stored in so many different
        formats, a subject-based limitation may sometimes be so broad as
        to be meaningless. As a practical matter, “it will often be impossible
        to . . . separate relevant files or documents before the search takes
        place, because officers cannot readily anticipate how a suspect will
        store information related to the charged crimes.” United States v.
        Ulbricht, 858 F.3d 71, 102 (2d Cir. 2017). The warrant here is a good
        example. The warrant authorized a search of seven categories of
        data: the phone’s registration information, its iCloud data (includ-
        ing all email content, photos, documents, contacts, and calendars),
        Find My iPhone data, communications records, iCloud backup his-
        tory, Facetime communication logs, and iTunes account infor-
        mation. But those categories are so broad as to allow investigators
        to review practically all conceivable content on the cloud account.
        Thus, despite a putative limitation, the warrant required Apple to
        turn over the entirety of the account’s information.
               Given these considerations, we think the preferred method
        of limiting the scope of a search warrant for a cloud account will
        usually be time-based. By narrowing a search to the data created or
        uploaded during a relevant time connected to the crime being in-
        vestigated, officers can particularize their searches to avoid general
        rummaging. Cloud or data-based warrants with a sufficiently tai-
        lored time-based limitation can undermine any claim that they are
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        20                     Opinion of the Court                 21-13092

        the “internet-era version of a ‘general warrant.’” Blake, 868 F.3d at
        974. And because data is often created or uploaded at an ascertain-
        able date and time, it will usually be possible to segregate that data
        before conducting a search. Of course, the circumstances of an in-
        vestigation may not require any subject- or time-limitation on a
        cloud warrant or may require that a sufficiently particular warrant
        include a subject-matter limitation. But in the mine run of cases,
        we think a time-based limitation will be both practical and protec-
        tive of privacy interests.
               The government concedes that the warrant here fell short
        of the particularity requirement because it allowed a search of all
        the conceivable data on the account without any meaningful limi-
        tation. Accordingly, we will assume the warrant was overbroad.
        The issue we must decide then “is whether the good faith excep-
        tion applies in this case to excuse the unconstitutionally over broad
        warrant.” United States v. Travers, 233 F.3d 1327, 1330 (11th Cir.
        2000).
               McCall argues that the warrant was “so facially deficient” in
        particularizing the places to be searched or things to be seized that
        the detective could not have “reasonably presume[d] it to be valid.”
        Leon, 468 U.S. at 923. We disagree. Even though there was no facial
        time limit, McCall’s iCloud account stored data for only a two-and-
        a-half-month period at the time of the search. Any temporal limita-
        tion that satisfied the particularity requirement likely would have
        covered that amount of time. The warrant likewise specified seven
        categories of data that officers were allowed to search, which was
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        21-13092               Opinion of the Court                        21

        tailored to the specific crime under investigation. Of course, those
        categories encompassed most of the account’s conceivable data.
        But we do not suppress evidence on overbreadth grounds if the
        warrant “adequately conveys its parameters.” United States v. Del-
        gado, 981 F.3d 889, 899 (11th Cir. 2020). The detective reasonably
        could have believed that the seven categories of iCloud infor-
        mation fell within the practical margin of flexibility for his broad
        investigative task, especially given the close connection between
        the cell phone used to commit the crime and the cloud account. See
        Wuagneux, 683 F.2d at 1349.
               Given the nature of the search, the connection between the
        crime and the cloud account, and the likelihood of a preexisting
        relationship between McCall and the gunmen, investigators rea-
        sonably presumed that the warrant was valid. See Leon, 468 U.S. at
        923. Even if the warrant violated the particularity requirement, it
        was not so “facially deficient” that the officers could not have rea-
        sonably relied on it when executing their iCloud search.
                                       C.

              Having rejected McCall’s arguments about probable cause
        and particularity on the face of the affidavit and warrant, we turn
        to McCall’s argument that the detective’s reliance on the warrant
        was objectively unreasonable because of the surrounding circum-
        stances. Morales, 987 F.3d at 976.
               We have held that “[i]n all but the most unusual circum-
        stances, it is objectively reasonable for a law enforcement officer to
        rely on a court order.” United States v. Stowers, 32 F.4th 1054, 1067
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        22                      Opinion of the Court                   21-13092

        (11th Cir. 2022); see also Robinson, 336 F.3d at 1295. After all, in most
        cases, officers “cannot be expected to question” a court’s “judg-
        ment that the form of the warrant is technically sufficient.” Leon,
        468 U.S. at 921. Nonetheless, if the circumstances of the warrant
        establish that “a reasonably well-trained officer would know that
        the warrant was illegal despite the [judge’s] authorization,” we
        must conclude that the detective acted unreasonably. Martin, 297
        F.3d at 1318. In answering this question, we may review “the entire
        record,” including information that was not before the magistrate
        or judge. Morales, 987 F.3d at 976.
               Applying this standard to the facts here, we cannot say the
        detective’s reliance on the iCloud warrant was objectively unrea-
        sonable. Before acting on the warrant, he received approval from
        several other individuals, including lawyers, that it passed factual
        and constitutional muster. See Messerschmidt, 565 U.S. at 554
        (“[T]hat the officer[] sought and obtained approval of the warrant
        application from a superior and a deputy district attorney before
        submitting it to the Magistrate provides further support for the
        conclusion that an officer could reasonably have believed that the
        scope of the warrant was supported by probable cause.”). The de-
        tective’s additional steps “are indicative of objective good faith.”
        United States v. Taxacher, 902 F.2d 867, 872 (11th Cir. 1990). And
        there was no reason to think that the judge’s approval of the war-
        rant was unusual or suspect. The supervisor of the digital forensics
        unit testified that the iCloud warrant looked like many other cloud
        warrants he had reviewed throughout his career, leading him to
        believe there was no reason to think it was invalid. Cf. Stowers, 32
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        21-13092              Opinion of the Court                       23

        F.4th at 1068–69 (reliance was reasonable in part because language
        in a challenged wiretap order was standard, giving no cause to be-
        lieve it was wrong). Additionally, the iCloud warrant derived from
        the cell phone warrant, which indisputably satisfied Fourth
        Amendment standards. Even assuming probable cause or particu-
        larity was lacking, the error was not so obvious that any reasonably
        well-trained officer would question the validity of the warrant.
                                      IV.

              The district court is AFFIRMED.
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        21-13092            ROSENBAUM, J., Concurring                        1

        ROSENBAUM, Circuit Judge, Concurring:
               I concur in nearly all of the well-reasoned panel opinion. I
        write separately to comment on the panel opinion’s conclusion
        that “in the mine run of cases, . . . a time-based limitation will be
        both practical and protective of privacy interests.” Maj. Op. at 20.
        I appreciate the panel opinion’s effort to identify a general rule. But
        though general rules are helpful when they’re possible, I just don’t
        think the issue here is that simple.
               The Warrants Clause of the Fourth Amendment ensures,
        among other things, that “no Warrants shall issue, but [those] . . .
        particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or
        things to be seized.” U.S. Const. amend. IV. The Supreme Court
        has noted that the “manifest purpose of this particularity require-
        ment was to prevent general searches.” Maryland v. Garrison, 480
        U.S. 79, 84 (1987); see also Coolidge v. New Hampshire, 403 U.S. 443,
        467 (1971) (identifying the “specific evil” against which the Fourth
        Amendment’s particularity requirement guards as “the ‘general
        warrant’ abhorred by the colonists,” which permitted “a general,
        exploratory rummaging in a person’s belongings”). As the Court
        has explained, the Framers wanted to ensure that “wide-ranging
        exploratory searches” did not occur. Garrison, 480 U.S. at 84. In
        furtherance of that objective, the particularity requirement “pre-
        vents the seizure of one thing under a warrant describing another.”
        Marron v. United States, 275 U.S. 192, 196 (1927).
               Given the purposes of the Fourth Amendment’s particular-
        ity requirement, it’s not surprising that we’ve said that a warrant’s
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        2                    ROSENBAUM, J., Concurring                 21-13092

        description of the things to be searched and seized “is sufficiently
        particular when it enables the searcher to reasonably ascertain and
        identify the things authorized to be seized.” United States v.
        Wuagneux, 683 F.2d 1343, 1348 (11th Cir. 1982). Still, though, we
        apply the particularity requirement “with a practical margin of flex-
        ibility, depending on the type of property to be seized.” Id. at 1349.
                So “a description of property will be acceptable if it is as spe-
        cific as the circumstances and nature of activity under investigation
        permit.” Id. And right there, we have the guiding principle for as-
        sessing whether a warrant contains a sufficiently particularized de-
        scription of the things to be searched and seized.
                To be sure, cloud searches, like other electronic searches,
        present particularity challenges unique to the digital realm. But at
        the very least, particularity’s guiding principle requires a warrant
        to be as specific as possible when it comes to identifying the things
        to be searched. And we can’t accomplish that if we artificially de-
        termine beforehand that a single criterion—say, the inclusion of a
        time period in a warrant—means the warrant satisfies the particu-
        larity requirement. Of course, often, including a time period will
        be necessary.
               But including a time period doesn’t relieve a warrant from
        otherwise having to particularly describe the things to be searched
        and seized to the extent possible. When it comes to electronic data,
        a warrant should also describe the categories of evidence it seeks—
        for instance, photographs, communications, and records (if appli-
        cable). And it should identify what subject matter those categories
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        21-13092            ROSENBAUM, J., Concurring                        3

        of evidence must pertain to. A warrant should also specify any
        other characteristics of the particular evidence sought that are pos-
        sible to identify and describe. In short, if we apply the guiding prin-
        ciple, it will be a rare circumstance when specifying only a
        timeframe will suffice.