Regarding Search Warrants
- Why might a request for a search warrant be denied?
A judge or magistrate can deny a request for a search warrant when it fails to meet constitutional and statutory requirements—mostly grounded in the Fourth Amendment. The core idea is simple: the government has to justify invading someone’s privacy. Here are the main reasons a warrant gets rejected, grouped the way judges usually think about them.
No probable cause
Stale information
Lack of particularity
Unreliable informant or insufficient corroboration
Defective or misleading affidavit
No nexus between crime, place, and evidence
Constitutional or statutory violations
Overbreadth or disproportionality
Wrong judge or lack of jurisdiction
- How often are requests for search warrants denied?
There isn’t a comprehensive official national count of how often judges deny search warrant requests in the ordinary criminal justice process in the United States (i.e., warrants based on probable cause under the Fourth Amendment). However, multiple empirical studies and data points suggest the denial rate for typical search warrants is very low.
Empirical research (e.g., a large analysis of electronic warrant requests in Utah) shows:
Judges approved about 98 % of warrant applications that were reviewed.
Over 93 % were approved on first submission.
Only roughly 2 % were not approved on first submission, which would include initial denials or requests for additional supporting information before approval.
The median judge review time was around three minutes.
That implies that outright denials (not conditional approvals or requests for more information) happen only in a small single-digit percentage of cases — perhaps 2 % or less of submitted requests — in these studied contexts. However, exact national statistics across all states and jurisdictions are not widely published.
- Provide examples of denied search warrants.
Lack of Probable Cause
Aguilar v. Texas
What happened: Police sought a warrant based solely on an unnamed informant’s tip.
Why denied: The affidavit gave no basis for the informant’s credibility or how they knew the information.
Rule: Established the Aguilar–Spinelli test (later relaxed, but still influential).
Overbroad or General Warrants
Stanford v. Texas
What happened: Warrant authorized seizure of all books and papers related to communism.
Why denied: Essentially a general warrant, the very abuse the Fourth Amendment was written to stop.
Rule: Warrants must be highly particular, especially when First Amendment materials are involved.
Digital & Modern Examples
Riley v. California
What happened: Police searched cell phones without a warrant.
Why denied: Phones contain vast personal data; a warrant is required.
Rule: Digital searches demand heightened scrutiny.
