Court Opinion

ID: 9711533
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 04:33:51.866286+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:23:05.723842
License: Public Domain

LEVINE, Justice,
concurring.
I give up. Notwithstanding the position I urged in State v. Ringquist, 433 N.W.2d 207, 217 (N.D.1988) (Levine, J., concurring and dissenting), namely, that we reject the Gates totality-of-the-circumstances test and continue to adhere to the Aguilar-Spinelli probable cause standard under our state constitution, henceforth, I will meekly join the majority rationale which adopts and applies Gates. I cannot resist pointing out that, as usual, the results under the Gates totality-of-eircumstances rule are not noticeably different from our common-sense application of Aguilar-Spinelli. I regret that the delicate balance of federalism is askew in North Dakota.
I am uneasy that the majority’s gratuitous analysis of the Leon “good faith” exception is a harbinger of ill tidings. I would prefer to decide only those issues in dispute and properly raised. Dictum in advisory opinions has a tendency to restrict future development of the law by inhibiting choices when the legal issue, discussed in dictum, is actually ripe for review. A good example of this phenomenon is apparent in Bank of Steele v. Lang, 441 N.W.2d 648 (N.D.1989).
Excepting n. 2, I concur.