Court Opinion

ID: 9429595
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-02 23:27:17.961686+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:18:20.194057
License: Public Domain

*728Per Curiam.
Last Term, in Illinois v. Gates, 462 U. S. 213 (1983), we held that the Fourth Amendment’s requirement of probable cause for the issuance of a warrant is to be applied, not according to a fixed and rigid formula, but rather in the light of the “totality of the circumstances” made known to the magistrate. We also emphasized that the task of a reviewing court is not to conduct a de novo determination of probable cause, but only to determine whether there is substantial evidence in the record supporting the magistrate’s decision to issue the warrant. In this case, the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts, interpreting the probable-cause requirement of the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution, continued to rely on the approach set forth in cases such as Aguilar v. Texas, 378 U. S. 108 (1964), and Spinelli v. United States, 393 U. S. 410 (1969). 390 Mass. 562, 458 N. E. 2d 717 (1983). Since this approach was rejected in Gates, we grant the petition for certiorari in this case and reverse the judgment of the Supreme Judicial Court.
At noon on September 11, 1980, Lieutenant Beland of the Yarmouth Police Department assisted in the execution of a search warrant for a motel room reserved by one Richard Kelleher at the Snug Harbor Motel in West Yarmouth. The search produced several items of identification, including *729credit cards, belonging to two persons whose homes had recently been burglarized. Other items taken in the burglaries, such as jewelry, silver, and gold, were not found at the motel.
At 3:20 p. m. on the same day, Lieutenant Beland received a call from an unidentified female who told him that there was “a motor home full of stolen stuff” parked behind #5 Jefferson Ave., the home of respondent George Upton and his mother. She stated that the stolen items included jewelry, silver, and gold. As set out in Lieutenant Beland’s affidavit in support of a search warrant:
“She further stated that George Upton was going to move the motor home any time now because of the fact that Ricky Kelleher’s motel room was raided and that George [Upton] had purchased these stolen items from Ricky Kelleher. This unidentified female stated that she had seen the stolen items but refused to identify herself because ‘he’ll kill me,’ referring to George Upton. I then told this unidentified female that I knew who she was, giving her the name of Lynn Alberico, who I had met on May 16, 1980, at George Upton’s repair shop off Summer St., in Yarmouthport. She was identified to me by George Upton as being his girlfriend, Lynn Alberico. The unidentified female admitted that she was the girl that I had named, stating that she was surprised that I knew who she was. She then told me that she’d broken up with George Upton and wanted to bum him. She also told me that she wouldn’t give me her address or phone number but that she would contact me in the future, if need be.” See 390 Mass., at 564 n. 2, 458 N. E. 2d, at 718, n. 2.
Following the phone call, Lieutenant Beland went to Upton’s house to verify that a motor home was parked on the property. Then, while other officers watched the premises, Lieutenant Beland prepared the application for a search war*730rant, setting out all the information noted above in an accompanying affidavit. He also attached the police reports on the two prior burglaries, along with lists of the stolen property. A Magistrate issued the warrant, and a subsequent search of the motor home produced the items described by the caller and other incriminating evidence. The discovered evidence led to Upton’s conviction on multiple counts of burglary, receiving stolen property, and related crimes.
On appeal to the Supreme Judicial Court, respondent argued that the search warrant was not supported by a sufficient showing of “probable cause” under the Fourth Amendment. With respect to our Gates opinion, that court said:
“It is not clear that the Gates opinion has announced a significant change in the appropriate Fourth Amendment treatment of applications for search warrants. Looking at what the Court did on the facts before it, and rejecting an expansive view of certain general statements not essential to the decision, we conclude that the Gates opinion deals principally with what corroboration of an informant’s tip, not adequate by itself, will be sufficient to meet probable cause standards.” 390 Mass., at 568, 458 N. E. 2d, at 720.
Prior to Gates, the Fourth Amendment was understood by many courts to require strict satisfaction of a “two-pronged test” whenever an affidavit supporting the issuance of a search warrant relies on an informant’s tip. It was thought that the affidavit, first, must establish the “basis of knowledge” of the informant — the particular means by which he came by the information given in his report; and, second, that it must provide facts establishing either the general “veracity” of the informant or the specific “reliability” of his report in the particular case. The Massachusetts court apparently viewed Gates as merely adding a new wrinkle to this two-pronged test: where an informant’s veracity and/or basis of knowledge are not sufficiently clear, substantial corroboration of the tip may save an otherwise invalid warrant.
*731“We do not view the Gates opinion as decreeing a stand-ardless ‘totality of the circumstances’ test. The informant’s veracity and the basis of his knowledge are still important but, where the tip is adequately corroborated, they are not elements indispensible [sic] to a finding of probable cause. It seems that, in a given case, the corroboration may be so strong as to satisfy probable cause in the absence of any other showing of the informant’s ‘veracity’ and any direct statement of the ‘basis of [his] knowledge.’” 390 Mass., at 568, 458 N. E. 2d, at 721.
Turning to the facts of this case, the Massachusetts court reasoned, first, that the basis of the informant’s knowledge was not “forcefully apparent” in the affidavit. Id., at 569, 458 N. E. 2d, at 721. Although the caller stated that she had seen the stolen items and that they were in the motor home, she did not specifically state that she saw them in the motor home. Second, the court concluded that “[n]one of the common bases for determining the credibility of an informant or the reliability of her information is present here.” Ibid. The caller was not a “tried and true” informant, her statement was not against penal interest, and she was not an “ordinary citizen” providing information as a witness to a crime. “She was an anonymous informant, and her unverified assent to the suggestion that she was Lynn Alberico does not take her out of that category.” Id., at 570, 458 N. E. 2d, at 722.
Finally, the court felt that there was insufficient corroboration of the informant’s tip to make up for its failure to satisfy the two-pronged test. The facts that tended to corroborate the informant’s story were that the motor home was where it was supposed to be, that the caller knew of the motel raid which took place only three hours earlier, and that the caller knew the name of Upton and his girlfriend. But, much as the Supreme Court of Illinois did in the opinion we reviewed in Gates, the Massachusetts court reasoned that each item of corroborative evidence either related to innocent, non-suspicious conduct or related to an event that took place in *732public. To sustain the warrant, the court concluded, more substantial corroboration was needed. The court therefore held that the warrant violated the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution and reversed respondent’s convictions.
We think that the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts misunderstood our decision in Gates. We did not merely refine or qualify the “two-pronged test.” We rejected it as hypertechnical and divorced from “the factual and practical considerations of everday life on which reasonable and prudent men, not legal technicians, act.” Brinegar v. United States, 338 U. S. 160, 175 (1949). Our statement on that score was explicit. “[W]e conclude that it is wiser to abandon the ‘two-pronged test’ established by our decisions in Aguilar and Spinelli. In its place we reaffirm the totality-of-the-circumstances analysis that traditionally has informed probable-cause determinations.” Gates, 462 U. S., at 238. This “totality-of-the-circumstances” analysis is more in keeping with the “practical, common-sense decision” demanded of the magistrate. Ibid.
We noted in Gates that “the ‘two-pronged test’ has encouraged an excessively technical dissection of informants’ tips, with undue attention being focused on isolated issues that cannot sensibly be divorced from the other facts presented to the magistrate.” Id., at 234-235 (footnote omitted). This, we think, is the error of the Massachusetts court in this case. The court did not consider Lieutenant Beland’s affidavit in its entirety, giving significance to each relevant piece of information and balancing the relative weights of all the various indicia of reliability (and unreliability) attending the tip. Instead, the court insisted on judging bits and pieces of information in isolation against the artificial standards provided by the two-pronged test.
The Supreme Judicial Court also erred in failing to grant any deference to the decision of the Magistrate to issue a warrant. Instead of merely deciding whether the evidence *733viewed as a whole provided a “substantial basis” for the Magistrate’s finding of probable cause, the court conducted a de novo probable-cause determination. We rejected just such after-the-fact, de novo scrutiny in Gates. Id., at 236. “A grudging or negative attitude by reviewing courts toward warrants,” United States v. Ventresca, 380 U. S. 102, 108 (1965), is inconsistent both with the desire to encourage use of the warrant process by police officers and with the recognition that once a warrant has been obtained, intrusion upon interests protected by the Fourth Amendment is less severe than otherwise may be the ease. Gates, supra, at 237, n. 10.* A deferential standard of review is appropriate to further the Fourth Amendment’s strong preference for searches conducted pursuant to a warrant.
Examined in light of Gates, Lieutenant Beland’s affidavit provides a substantial basis for the issuance of the warrant. No single piece of evidence in it is conclusive. But the pieces fit neatly together and, so viewed, support the Magistrate’s determination that there was “a fair probability that contraband or evidence of a crime” would be found in Upton’s motor home. 462 U. S., at 238. The informant claimed to have seen the stolen goods and gave a description of them which tallied with the items taken in recent burglaries. She knew of the raid on the motel room — which produced evidence connected to those burglaries — and that the room had been reserved by Kelleher. She explained the connection between *734Kelleher’s motel room and the stolen goods in Upton’s motor home. And she provided a motive both for her attempt at anonymity — fear of Upton’s retaliation — and for furnishing the information — her recent breakup with Upton and her desire “to burn him.”
The Massachusetts court dismissed Lieutenant Beland’s identification of the caller as a mere “unconfirmed guess.” 390 Mass., at 569, n. 6, 458 N. E. 2d, at 721, n. 6. But “probable cause does not demand the certainty we associate with formal trials.” Gates, supra, at 246. Lieutenant Beland noted that the caller “admitted that she was the girl I had named, stating that she was surprised that I knew who she was.” It is of course possible that the caller merely adopted Lieutenant Beland’s suggestion as “a convenient cover for her true identity.” 390 Mass., at 570, 458 N. E. 2d, at 722. But given the caller’s admission, her obvious knowledge of who Alberico was and how she was connected with Upton, and her explanation of her motive in calling, Lieutenant Beland’s inference appears stronger than a mere uninformed and unconfirmed guess. It is enough that the inference was a reasonable one and conformed with the other pieces of evidence making up the total showing of probable cause.
In concluding that there was probable cause for the issuance of this warrant, the Magistrate can hardly be accused of approving a mere “hunch” or a bare recital of legal conclusions. The informant’s story and the surrounding facts possessed an internal coherence that gave weight to the whole. Accordingly, we conclude that the information contained in Lieutenant Beland’s affidavit provided a sufficient basis for the “practical, common-sense decision” of the Magistrate. “Although in a particular case it may not be easy to determine when an affidavit demonstrates the existence of probable cause, the resolution of doubtful or marginal cases in this area should be largely determined by the preference to be accorded to warrants.” United States v. Ventresca, supra, at 109.
*735The judgment of the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts is reversed, and the case is remanded for further proceedings not inconsistent with this opinion.

It is so ordered.

Justice Brennan and Justice Marshall dissent from the summary disposition of this case and would deny the petition for certiorari.

“If the affidavits submitted by police officers are subjected to the type of scrutiny some courts have deemed appropriate, police might well resort to warrantless searches, with the hope of relying on consent or some other exception to the Warrant Clause that might develop at the time of the search. In addition, the possession of a warrant by officers conducting an arrest or search greatly reduces the perception of unlawful or intrusive police conduct, by assuring ‘the individual whose property is searched or seized of the lawful authority of the executing officer, his need to search, and the limits of his power to search.’ United States v. Chadwick, 433 U. S. 1, 9 (1977).” Gates, 462 U. S., at 236.