Cite as: 540 U. S. 551 (2004)
Opinion of the Court
468 U. S., at 988, n. 5.8 Because not a word in any of our cases would suggest to a reasonable officer that this case fits within any exception to that fundamental tenet, petitioner is asking us, in effect, to craft a new exception. Absent any support for such an exception in our cases, he cannot reasonably have relied on an expectation that we would do so.
Petitioner contends that the search in this case was the product, at worst, of a lack of due care, and that our case law requires more than negligent behavior before depriving an official of qualified immunity. See Malley v. Briggs, 475 U. S. 335, 341 (1986). But as we observed in the companion case to Sheppard, "a warrant may be so facially deficient— i. e., in failing to particularize the place to be searched or the things to be seized—that the executing officers cannot reasonably presume it to be valid." Leon, 468 U. S., at 923. This is such a case.9
8 Although both Sheppard and Leon involved the application of the "good faith" exception to the Fourth Amendment's general exclusionary rule, we have explained that "the same standard of objective reasonableness that we applied in the context of a suppression hearing in Leon defines the qualified immunity accorded an officer." Malley v. Briggs, 475 U. S. 335, 344 (1986) (citation omitted).
9 Justice Kennedy argues in dissent that we have not allowed " 'ample room for mistaken judgments,' " post, at 571 (quoting Malley, 475 U. S., at 343), because "difficult and important tasks demand the officer's full attention in the heat of an ongoing and often dangerous criminal investigation," post, at 568. In this case, however, petitioner does not contend that any sort of exigency existed when he drafted the affidavit, the warrant application, and the warrant, or when he conducted the search. This is not the situation, therefore, in which we have recognized that "officers in the dangerous and difficult process of making arrests and executing search warrants" require "some latitude." Maryland v. Garrison, 480 U. S. 79, 87 (1987).
Nor are we according "the correctness of paper forms" a higher status than "substantive rights." Post, at 571. As we have explained, the Fourth Amendment's particularity requirement assures the subject of the search that a magistrate has duly authorized the officer to conduct a search of limited scope. This substantive right is not protected when the officer fails to take the time to glance at the authorizing document and
565
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