In an appeal involving the FBI cracking an anonymous web browser and prosecuting child porn viewers in different states, an appellate court deemed evidence gathered via a controversial computer search warrant violated the Fourth Amendment but was still admissible on a good-faith exception.

Appellant Bryan Gilbert Henderson, a California resident, challenged a California district court’s denial of his motion to suppress evidence gathered through a Network Investigative Technique warrant issued by a Virginia magistrate judge. Henderson argued that the judge issuing the warrant, which allowed the FBI to search computers logged into the child porn site Playpen via the anonymous Tor browser regardless of location, violated territorial scope set by the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure, a position with which the four-judge U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit panel agreed.