This section contains the nature of the case and procedural background.

D is a software engineer. In 2018, he discovered StrikeLines, a company that uses sonar equipment to identify private, artificial reefs that individuals construct to attract fish. StrikeLines sells the geographic coordinates of those reefs to interested parties. D believed that StrikeLines was unfairly profiting from the work of private reef builders. D used a web application to obtain tranches of coordinates from the company’s website. D then announced on a social-media website that he had StrikeLines’ data. When contacted by StrikeLines, D offered to remove his social-media posts and fix the company’s security issues in exchange for “‘one thing’”: the coordinates of certain “‘deep grouper spots’” that he had apparently been unable to obtain. Settlement negotiations failed, and StrikeLines reported D to law enforcement authorities. D was indicted in the Northern District of Florida for theft of trade secrets. D moved to dismiss the indictment for lack of venue, citing the Constitution’s Venue Clause, Art. III, §2, cl. 3, and its Vicinage Clause, Amdt. 6. D had accessed the data from Mobile (in the Southern District of Alabama), and the servers storing StrikeLines’ coordinates were located in Orlando (in the Middle District of Florida). The Court concluded that the jury needed to resolve factual disputes related to venue and denied the motion to dismiss without prejudice. D was found guilty under §1832(a)(1), and moved for a judgment of acquittal based on improper venue. The District Court denied the motion, reasoning that StrikeLines felt the effects of the crime at its headquarters in the Northern District of Florida. The Eleventh Circuit held that venue was improper on the trade secrets charge and that the “remedy for improper venue is vacatur of the conviction, not acquittal or dismissal with prejudice,” and that the “Double Jeopardy Clause is not implicated by a retrial in a proper venue.” D appealed.

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