⚖ Oral Arguments, with Context

We hear the Eleventh Circuit in United States versus Charles Williams. The dispute grew out of a drug investigation involving two residences connected to Williams. Police collected drug evidence from trash at one address and obtained a warrant to search the other. Williams challenged the connection between that second property and the evidence sought there. The district court adopted a magistrate judge's recommendation and denied his request to exclude the evidence. The argument begins with how a guilty plea affects appellate review of that ruling. Rule Eleven allows a conditional plea reserving a specified pretrial issue for appeal in writing, with the court's and government's consent. Then the discussion turns to probable cause for the warrant and the good-faith exception associated with United States versus Leon. That exception can permit evidence obtained under a warrant later found invalid when officers relied on it objectively reasonably. A judge's signature alone is not enough: reliance on a plainly deficient warrant or an affidavit lacking even a reasonable basis for probable cause can fall outside the exception.

United States v. Charles Williams (No. 25-11666) — U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, argued November 3, 2026.