United States v. Ted Phillips

WILLIAM PRYOR, Circuit Judge:

This appeal presents a question of first impression about the Fourth Amendment: Can the police arrest someone based solely on a civil writ of bodily attachment for unpaid child support? Ted Phillips appeals his conviction of being a felon in possession of a firearm and an armed career criminal, 18 U.S.C. §§ 922(g)(1), 924(e)(1). A police officer discovered Phillips’s firearm while arresting him on a writ of bodily attachment, Fla. Fam. L.R.P. 12.615. Phillips argues that the firearm should have been suppressed, but we disagree. Writs of bodily attachment are…