In United States v. Esqueda, --- F.4th ---, No. 22-50170 (9th Cir. 2023), the Court affirmed the district court’s denial of Christopher Esqueda’s motion to suppress evidence in a case in which Esqueda entered a conditional plea to possessing a firearm as a felon, 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(1).
The Court held that an undercover officer who physically enters a premises with express consent and secretly records only what he can see and hear by virtue of his consented entry does not trespass, physically intrude, or otherwise engage in a search violative of the Fourth Amendment. The Court held that the Supreme Court’s decisions in Jardines and Jones do not disturb this well-settled principle.
