United States v. Gratkowski
United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit
964 F.3d 3017 (2020)

- Written by Sean Carroll, JD
Facts
The public information in a bitcoin blockchain included, for each bitcoin transfer, the bitcoin addresses of the payor and payee and the amount of the transfer. By analyzing the blockchain, it would be possible to identify blockchain users. Federal agents reviewed publicly available bitcoin blockchain information to identify a group of bitcoin addresses held by a child-pornography website (the website). Law enforcement subpoenaed Coinbase, a virtual-currency exchange, to identify its customers who had sent bitcoin to the website. Coinbase identified Richard Gratkowski (defendant) as one of those customers. Federal agents searched Gratkowski’s house and found child pornography. Gratkowski was charged with crimes related to child pornography. Gratkowski filed a motion to suppress the evidence found at his house, claiming that the disclosure of his bitcoin records violated his Fourth Amendment rights. The district court denied the motion. Gratkowski appealed.
Rule of Law
Issue
Holding and Reasoning (Haynes, J.)
What to do next…
Here's why 834,000 law students have relied on our case briefs:
- Written by law professors and practitioners, not other law students. 46,600 briefs, keyed to 994 casebooks. Top-notch customer support.
- The right amount of information, includes the facts, issues, rule of law, holding and reasoning, and any concurrences and dissents.
- Access in your classes, works on your mobile and tablet. Massive library of related video lessons and high quality multiple-choice questions.
- Easy to use, uniform format for every case brief. Written in plain English, not in legalese. Our briefs summarize and simplify; they don’t just repeat the court’s language.