United States v. Bynum

On July 8, 2003, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) special agent Gregory Zack, while working undercover, entered a child-pornography online chat group administered by Yahoo. Zack observed that someone using the moniker “markie_zkidluv6” (markie) had uploaded pornographic images of children on June 22, 2003. On July 10, 2003, Zack observed that markie had uploaded more images. The FBI served an administrative subpoena on Yahoo and obtained the subscriber information on markie’s account and the Internet-protocol (IP) addresses associated with the user’s uploads. Using a public website, the FBI matched the IP addresses to an Internet service provider (ISP). The FBI subpoenaed the ISP for the customer information on the account and obtained an email address and telephone number. The telephone number was associated with a telephone company, which the FBI subpoenaed to obtain additional subscriber information, including the name Marques Bynum (defendant) and a physical address in North Carolina, the home of Bynum’s mother. In late September 2003, Zack observed a third upload from markie of a pornographic video. Zack accessed markie’s profile information, which had a photo of Bynum in a bedroom and the user’s identification of himself as a single male living in North Carolina. A federal court issued a search warrant for the Bynum home based on the sworn information the FBI had gathered. In December 2003, the FBI searched the home and found a laptop computer in the room shown in markie’s profile picture. The laptop computer contained large amounts of child pornography, including the uploaded images and video. Bynum was charged with transporting and possessing child pornography. At trial, Bynum’s motion to suppress the seized evidence was denied, and he was convicted. Bynum appealed, arguing that his Fourth Amendment rights had been violated through the FBI’s use of subpoenas and its request for a warrant.