Court Opinion

ID: 9483049
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 09:08:53.222815+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:49:22.802827
License: Public Domain

JOHNSON, Circuit Judge,
concurring:
While I agree that the majority has formulated the correct methodology for analyzing a warrant affidavit tainted by an illegal search, I am concerned with its conclusion that the warrant affidavit contains sufficient facts to constitute probable cause. It seems to me that it is at least a close question in this case whether the warrant affidavit, purged of the information gleaned from the illegal search, contains sufficient facts to support a finding of probable cause. Because the district court is in a better position to review the warrant affidavit, I would remand this case to the district court for its own probable cause analysis. See Illinois v. Gates, 462 U.S. 213, 236, 103 S.Ct. 2317, 2331, 76 L.Ed.2d 527 (1983); United States v. Wake, 948 F.2d 1422, 1428 (5th Cir.1991); United States v. May, 819 F.2d 531, 535 (5th Cir. 1987).1
In all other respects, I concur in the majority opinion.

. The majority in this case conducts a de novo review of the sufficiency of the warrant affidavit. I cannot join in this result. The Supreme Court in Illinois v. Gates has expressly forbidden de novo review of the sufficiency of a warrant affidavit. 462 U.S. at 236, 103 S.Ct. at 2331 ("we have repeatedly said that after-the-fact scrutiny by courts of the sufficiency of an affidavit should not take the form of de novo review."). The reason for this rule is simple: the courts of appeals are ill equipped to undertake an extensive after-the-fact review of the sufficiency of a warrant affidavit.
Nonetheless, from the remote position of an appellate court, the majority would offend this rule and attempt to reevaluate the sufficiency of a warrant affidavit. The majority distinguishes Gates on the basis that Gates involves the review of a magistrate, not the district court. The majority concludes that "[a]n appellate court need not give deference ... to the district court’s deferential review of the magistrate judge’s decision.” Majority Opinion, at 971 n. 18. Significantly, however, the majority cites no authority for this distinction. Nor does it attempt to justify the distinction. I must conclude that the language in Gates requires that we remand. This Court is an inappropriate forum for the type of extensive review that the majority conducts in this case.