Court Opinion

ID: 9591944
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 00:09:02.44613+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:19:33.721079
License: Public Domain

McCown, J.,
concurring in result.
I cannot agree that the affidavit involved here met standards previously applicable. The United States Supreme Court and this court have uniformly held that where informants are involved, an affidavit for a search warrant must inform the magistrate of (1) some of the underlying circumstances from which the informant concluded that the articles were located where he claimed they were; and (2) some of the underlying circumstances from which the officer concluded that the in*755formant was credible. See, United States v. Ventresca, 380 U. S. 102, 85 S. Ct. 741, 13 L. Ed. 2d 684; State v. Holloway, 187 Neb. 1, 187 N. W. 2d 85; State v. LeDent, 185 Neb. 380, 176 N. W. 2d 21.
The majority opinion concedes, that recitals in the affidavit that the police had been informed explosives were kept at the residence and defendants had said that explosives should be used against police officers would be insufficient standing alone. The opinion nevertheless validates an otherwise insufficient affidavit upon the theory that allegations of membership in a certain organization and the holding of office in such organization, together with an allegation the defendants advocated violence against police officers and that violence had occurred, somehow constitute “underlying circumstances” and cure the otherwise obvious defects. Whenever active membership in an organization which advocates violence against the police or any other group or segment of society, and a public expression of individual approval of such views, standing alone, become justification for the issuance of a search warrant whenever an incident of such violence occurs, the Fourth Amendment has lost its meaning.
I would place the decision on a different ground. At the time of making the affidavit for the search warrant, the police department had ample information to constitute probable cause for the issuance of the warrant, but much of the information was omitted from the affidavit. To apply the exclusionary rule under such circumstances exalts form over substance. Our cases should be modified to permit supplementing the affidavit at the hearing on a motion to suppress by evidence of additional information proven to have been known to the police at the time the affidavit was made and the warrant issued, but not set out in the affidavit. The facts here indicate the advisability of an ad hoc approach permitting some flexibility in thé court’s analysis of the individual circumstances, of each case.