The oral argument in Dahda v. United States started off on a bad note for Los Rovell Dahda, who was represented by Kannon Shanmugam. Shanmugam was asking the court to find that a wiretap order was “insufficient on its face,” and therefore triggered Title III of the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968’s statutory exclusionary rule, because it authorized surveillance outside the issuing court’s territorial jurisdiction. Asking the first question, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg seemed to embrace one of the government’s central arguments. Yes, the district court “authorized more” than legally allowed by approving surveillance outside the court’s territorial jurisdiction, “but that more was never introduced” in Dadha’s trial. So, no harm, no foul. Later, Ginsburg returned to the same theme, noting that, “as applied, the orders did not violate the statute,” and then quickly adding that a ruling on that basis “seems to make good sense.”
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