The Fourth Amendment of the United States Constitution protects U.S. citizens from unreasonable searches and seizures, and further provides that warrants must be backed by probable cause. The government cannot violate a person’s “reasonable expectation of privacy” under the Fourth Amendment. United States v. Jones, 565 U.S. 400, 406 (2012).

In 2019, Theory Wellness, an operator of marijuana dispensaries, contracted with Sean O’Donovan, a local Massachusetts attorney, to provide government-relations assistance in support of their endeavor to receive approval from the city of Medford, MA, to sell marijuana. O’Donovan attempted to influence  Medford’s chief of police through his brother to procure the approval by promising him some of the business's future proceeds but was eventually caught. He was found guilty of two counts of honest-services wire fraud and one count of federal program bribery.