United States v. Jeffrey Grubbs (547 U.S. 90)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided March 21, 2006 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 547 U.S. 90 · 126 S. Ct. 1494
- Decided
- March 21, 2006
- Term
- October Term 2005
- Vote
- 8–0
- Majority author
- Justice Scalia
- Issue area
- Criminal Procedure
- Disposition
- Reversed and remanded
- Outcome
- Petitioning party won
- Ideological direction
- Conservative
Opinion excerpt
Justice Scalia delivered the opinion of the Court. Federal law enforcement officers obtained a search warrant for respondent’s house on the basis of an affidavit explaining that the warrant would be executed only after a controlled delivery of contraband to that location. We address two challenges to the constitutionality of this anticipatory warrant. I Respondent Jeffrey Grubbs purchased a videotape containing child pornography from a Web site operated by an undercover postal inspector. Officers from the Postal Inspection Service arranged a controlled delivery of a package containing the videotape to Grubbs’ residence. A postal inspector submitted a search warrant application to a Magistrate Judge for the Eastern District of California, accompanied by an affidavit describing the proposed operation in detail. The affidavit stated: “Execution of this search warrant will not occur unless and until the parcel has been received by a person(s) and has been physically taken into the residence .... At that time, and not before, this search warrant will be executed by me and other United States Postal inspectors, with appropriate assistance from other law enforcement officers in accordance with this warrant’s command.” App. to Pet. for Cert. 72a. In addition to describing this triggering condition, the affidavit referred to two attachments, which described Grubbs’ residence and the…
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