United States v. Grubbs

The Supreme Court held that probable cause to sustain a search warrant need only be present at the time the search is conducted. In this light, all search warrants are “anticipatory” in that the government has established probable cause that the offending items will be present at the time of the search. The Court stated that “[A]nticipatory warrants are, therefore, no different in principle from ordinary warrants. They require the magistrate to determine (1) that it is now probable that (2) contraband, evidence of a crime, or a fugitive will be on the described premises (3) when the warrant is executed.” Anticipatory warrants additionally require a condition to exist before the search warrant can be executed.