Also known as: magistrate-shop · judge shopping · forum shopping
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
A law enforcement practice of seeking out a magistrate who is likely to issue a search warrant even when probable cause is marginal or absent. The practice raises concerns that officers may bypass rigorous judicial scrutiny by presenting weak applications to lenient magistrates.
Detectives investigating a suspected drug operation submit a warrant application to three different magistrates in succession. The first two decline for lack of probable cause. The third signs the warrant after a brief review. The defense later moves to suppress the evidence obtained.
An officer whose initial warrant request is denied by one magistrate immediately presents the same affidavit to a second magistrate without additional facts. The second magistrate issues the warrant. The evidence seized leads to charges, and the defendant challenges the search on grounds that the officer engaged in improper selection of the issuing authority.
Select any source to read its text and confirm it supports the definition.
The Supreme Court in Leon considered whether suppressing evidence would deter officers from engaging in magistrate shopping by presenting inadequate warrant applications. The Court concluded that such arguments are speculative and that suppression should be ordered only on a case-by-case basis in unusual circumstances.
Supporting sources
Under the good-faith exception, evidence is not suppressed when officers reasonably rely on a warrant issued by a neutral magistrate. The Court viewed the risk of magistrate shopping as too attenuated to justify routine exclusion, emphasizing that suppression occurs only when the officer's reliance is objectively unreasonable.
Supporting sources
In Illinois v. Krull the Court noted that the deterrent effect is even weaker when officers act under a statute authorizing warrantless inspections. Unlike a warrant application, a statute requires no pre-inspection judicial approval, so there is no opportunity for officers to shop among magistrates.
Supporting sources
…where the police failed to demonstrate probable cause in the warrant application deters future inadequate presentations or "magistrate shopping" and thus promotes the ends of the Fourth Amendment. Suppressing evidence obtained pursuant to a technically defective warrant supported by probable cause also might encourage officers to…