Opinion ID: 435908
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Reliability of Informant

Text: 17 Appellants also assert that the information relied on by the court to establish probable cause did not meet the test for reliability established by the Supreme Court in Illinois v. Gates, 462 U.S. 213, 103 S.Ct. 2317, 76 L.Ed.2d 527 (1983). We disagree. In Illinois v. Gates, the Supreme Court abandoned the prior, rigid two-pronged test of Aguilar v. Texas, 378 U.S. 108, 84 S.Ct. 1509, 12 L.Ed.2d 723 (1964), and Spinelli v. United States, 393 U.S. 410, 89 S.Ct. 584, 21 L.Ed.2d 637 (1969) and established instead a flexible standard. Courts should now use a totality of the circumstances analysis to determine whether an informant's tip establishes probable cause. Id. 103 S.Ct. at 2332. Under the new test the issuing magistrate must only make a practical, common-sense decision whether, given all the circumstances set forth in the affidavit before him, including the 'veracity' and 'basis of knowledge' of persons supplying [the] hearsay information, id., there is probable cause to issue the search warrant. Reviewing courts must only ensure that the magistrate had a 'substantial basis for ... conclud[ing]' that probable cause existed. Id., quoting Jones v. United States, 362 U.S. 257, 271, 80 S.Ct. 725, 736, 4 L.Ed.2d 697 (1960). 18 All of the circumstances in this case indicate probable cause existed to issue the warrant. The hearsay information offered by the informant was corroborated by independent evidence. The magistrate had substantial basis for concluding that probable cause existed.