Law360 (October 22, 2026, 10:18 PM EDT) -- The Sixth Circuit has ruled that a man convicted for his role in a gang kidnapping did not have a reasonable expectation of privacy in an Instagram group chat log seized from another street gang member, so he could not challenge search warrants for other members' social media accounts.

A three-judge panel ruled Wednesday that defendant Nasir Lewis could not suppress chat messages and a video clip of him jabbing a kidnapping victim with an assault rifle that police obtained during searches of other chat participants' Instagram accounts and a phone. Lewis had argued that the initial warrants obtained for fellow gang member Cortez Blake's social media accounts were unlawful, tainting the searches that followed.

"While technological innovations can bring new issues to Fourth Amendment jurisprudence, the novelty of social media poses no such difficulty here because Blake's accounts are tantamount to any other corporeal belonging," U.S. Circuit Judge Stephanie D. Davis said in the opinion. "Lewis has 'neither a property nor possessory interest' in Blake's bedroom dresser or diary, and he similarly lacks property or possessory interests in Blake's social media accounts."

Lewis aided several other gang members who kidnapped Taliyah Jackson after they believed Jackson had set up Blake to be ambushed in late 2021 by a rival gang in Detroit. Jackson and Blake were riding in a rented SUV when the pair were ambushed, and Blake was shot while attempting to flee, the opinion said.

Jackson followed Blake to the hospital, and two of Blake's fellow gang members offered to give her a ride home, according to the opinion. Rather than take Jackson home, they drove her to a vacant lot and began questioning her and claiming she helped orchestrate the carjacking, the opinion said.

The gang members then took Jackson to Blake's home, and Lewis likely arrived shortly thereafter. The group called two women, who then repeatedly attacked Jackson, according to the opinion. The younger sister of one of the women filmed the beatings, the opinion said.

The gang operated a group chat on Instagram, and the video was posted to the chat, in which several members identified Lewis and Jackson. Lewis threatened the girl who filmed it, and the girl's sister told her to delete it, the opinion said.

In January 2022, state and federal officials opened an investigation into the gang's unlawful gun possession. During the investigation, law enforcement sought and obtained a total of six state and federal warrants, the opinion said.

The first state warrant requested information from Blake's Instagram account, including messages, photos and videos sent, received and posted. A second state warrant was approved, similarly seeking information from Blake's social media, the opinion said.

The investigators then sought warrants in federal court for similar social media information from Blake and five others. A federal warrant focusing on the kidnapping of Jackson sought information from 17 Instagram accounts, including Lewis', the opinion said.

Several months after the warrants were issued, law enforcement obtained information about the video taken by the younger sister. Law enforcement obtained and executed a search warrant of the younger sister's phone and recovered the video, the opinion said.

A grand jury indicted Lewis and six others on charges of conspiracy to kidnap Jackson and aiding and abetting the kidnapping. Lewis took his case to trial and sought to exclude several pieces of evidence, including that from the gang and statements in the chat he claimed were not admissible under the co-conspirator exception to the hearsay rule, the opinion said.

A jury acquitted Lewis of conspiracy to kidnap and found him guilty of aiding and abetting Jackson's kidnapping. Lewis is incarcerated in federal prison and eligible for release in December 2033, according to prison records.

Lewis appealed the trial court's decision not to suppress evidence in his case and said the evidence presented was insufficient in his case. The Sixth Circuit ruled that because the searches were of a third-party account, he could not mount a Fourth Amendment challenge and that the evidence presented in his case was sufficient for a conviction, the opinion said.

The opinion said that Lewis could not challenge the state warrants used to search Blake's accounts because he lacks standing to challenge them. Lewis also cannot challenge the federal warrants on Fourth Amendment grounds because his argument that the federal warrants are premised on the state warrants fails, the opinion said.

The Sixth Circuit held that Lewis did not have a reasonable expectation of privacy during a search of Blake's social media accounts. Lewis also lacked a foundation to challenge federal warrants used to search his own accounts, so the information should not be suppressed, the opinion said.

An attorney representing Lewis and a spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Michigan did not respond to requests for comment.

U.S. Circuit Judges Stephanie D. Davis, Eugene E. Siler Jr. and Kevin G. Ritz sat on the panel for the Sixth Circuit.

The government is represented by Sarah Alsaden of the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Michigan.

Lewis is represented by Melissa M. Salinas, Isabelle Tegtmeyer and Daniel Kaylor of the University of Michigan.

The case is United States v. Lewis, case number 25-1508, in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit.

--Editing by Nick Siwek.

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