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Court upholds search in child pornography case

Posted on: Tuesday, 21 March 2006, 13:10 CST

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court upheld on Tuesday the search of a California man's home for child pornography and ruled law enforcement officers can get a search warrant in advance of an expected crime.

The unanimous opinion written by Justice Antonin Scalia said the fact that a warrant was obtained in advance of a crime does not make it unconstitutional, as long as is it probable that contraband, like child pornography, will be present when the search is carried out later.

The case involved Jeffrey Grubbs, who purchased a videotape containing child pornography from a Web site operated by an undercover U.S. postal inspector. Officers from the Postal Inspector Service arranged delivery of a package containing the videotape to his home in Galt, California.

They obtained a search warrant for the residence after explaining it would be executed only after the package had been delivered. Two days later, the package arrived and officers then entered the house and began the search.

Grubbs agreed to be questioned by the officers and admitted ordering the videotape. He was arrested and various items, including the videotape, were seized.

Grubbs, who pleaded guilty to one count of child pornography, sought to suppress the evidence seized. He said the warrant was invalid because it did not list the triggering event -- the delivery of the videotape -- for the search.

Scalia disagreed. He said the Constitution only required details in the warrant about the place to be searched and the persons or the items to be seized.

He upheld as constitutional "anticipatory" search warrants that are based on a showing that it is probable that evidence of a crime will be located at a specific place in the future.

Scalia said the magistrate still must determine it is probable that contraband or evidence of a crime will be present when the search is executed.

Source: REUTERS

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