This paper evaluates the requirements used by the Supreme Court in order to determine probable cause for a warrant as seen in two very similar cases – Aguilar and Gates . Even though the circumstances of the cases were almost indistinguishable, the Supreme Court changed its stance on these requirements in the latter case ( Goldberg, 2013 ).
In Aguilar , the magistrate issued a search warrant on the premise that the police had obtained credible information from a reliable individual that the accused was in possession of drugs. Regardless, the Supreme Court stated that the magistrate was wrong to determine probable cause based on an affiant’s belief alone or on conclusory statements. Furthermore, the affidavit was found to be defective since neither the informant nor the police had claimed in the affidavit that they had acquired personal knowledge of said information. It was concluded that the affidavit did not contain enough information to qualify as a determinant for probable cause ( Goldberg, 2013 ). The Court required that the magistrate should be informed of the circumstances illustrating the informant’s credibility as well as the circumstances backing up the claims.
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In Gates , the requirements for the determination of probable cause were somewhat different. Like in Aguilar , the Illinois Supreme Court noted that the affidavit presented by the police was not based on knowledge since it failed to demonstrate that the information was found on the informant’s personal knowledge. However, the United States Supreme Court stated that the Fourth Amendment allowed only that a reviewing court evaluates the magistrate’s decision to establish whether it is based on the idea that a search was likely to uncover evidence of an offense before giving a search warrant. The only limitation the Court provided was that the magistrate’s decision should not be a “mere authorization” of the bare deductions of others ( Goldberg, 2013 ). In this case, the court had abandoned what is referred to as the two-pronged test, which was used in Aguilar .
References
Aguilar v. Texas 378 U.S. 106 (1964).
Goldberg, E. (2013). Getting Beyond Intuition in the Probable Cause Inquiry. Lewis & Clark L. Rev. , 17 , 789.
Illinois v. Gates 462 U.S. 212 (1983).
