The rigid two-pronged Aguilar–Spinelli test is abandoned in favor of a more flexible totality of the circumstances approach.
E522190
This is the central holding of Illinois v. Gates, a landmark 1983 U.S. Supreme Court decision that reshaped the standard for evaluating probable cause based on informants’ tips under the Fourth Amendment.
All labels observed (1)
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T5478418 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: The rigid two-pronged Aguilar–Spinelli test is abandoned in favor of a more flexible totality of the circumstances approach. Context triple: [Illinois v. Gates, holding, The rigid two-pronged Aguilar–Spinelli test is abandoned in favor of a more flexible totality of the circumstances approach.]
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A.
flexible response doctrine
The flexible response doctrine was a Cold War U.S. military strategy that emphasized a wide range of graduated, conventional and nuclear options to deter or respond to aggression, rather than relying primarily on massive nuclear retaliation.
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B.
Lemon test
The Lemon test is a three-pronged legal standard used by U.S. courts to determine whether a government action violates the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment.
-
C.
Oakes test
The Oakes test is a legal framework used by Canadian courts to determine whether a law that limits Charter rights can be justified as a reasonable and demonstrably justified restriction in a free and democratic society.
-
D.
Noerr-Pennington doctrine
The Noerr-Pennington doctrine is a U.S. legal principle that shields individuals and entities from antitrust liability when they petition the government, even if their efforts have anticompetitive effects.
-
E.
Windsor v. United States (in part)
Windsor v. United States (in part) is a landmark 2013 U.S. Supreme Court decision that struck down key portions of the Defense of Marriage Act, advancing federal recognition of same-sex marriages.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: The rigid two-pronged Aguilar–Spinelli test is abandoned in favor of a more flexible totality of the circumstances approach. Target entity description: This is the central holding of Illinois v. Gates, a landmark 1983 U.S. Supreme Court decision that reshaped the standard for evaluating probable cause based on informants’ tips under the Fourth Amendment.
-
A.
flexible response doctrine
The flexible response doctrine was a Cold War U.S. military strategy that emphasized a wide range of graduated, conventional and nuclear options to deter or respond to aggression, rather than relying primarily on massive nuclear retaliation.
-
B.
Lemon test
The Lemon test is a three-pronged legal standard used by U.S. courts to determine whether a government action violates the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment.
-
C.
Oakes test
The Oakes test is a legal framework used by Canadian courts to determine whether a law that limits Charter rights can be justified as a reasonable and demonstrably justified restriction in a free and democratic society.
-
D.
Noerr-Pennington doctrine
The Noerr-Pennington doctrine is a U.S. legal principle that shields individuals and entities from antitrust liability when they petition the government, even if their efforts have anticompetitive effects.
-
E.
Windsor v. United States (in part)
Windsor v. United States (in part) is a landmark 2013 U.S. Supreme Court decision that struck down key portions of the Defense of Marriage Act, advancing federal recognition of same-sex marriages.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (39)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf | U.S. Supreme Court decision ⓘ |
| affects |
evaluation of probable cause for search warrants
ⓘ
police reliance on anonymous tips ⓘ |
| appliesTo |
informant information in warrant applications
ⓘ
magistrates’ determinations of probable cause ⓘ |
| areaOfLaw |
criminal procedure
ⓘ
search and seizure law ⓘ |
| changedFrom | two-pronged Aguilar–Spinelli analysis ⓘ |
| changedTo | holistic totality of the circumstances analysis ⓘ |
| characterizedAs | leading case on informant-based probable cause ⓘ |
| citation | 462 U.S. 213 ⓘ |
| citationStyle |
Illinois v. Gates, 462 U.S. 213 (1983)
ⓘ
linked to:
Illinois v. Gates
|
| constitutionalProvision | Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution ⓘ |
| country |
United States
ⓘ
linked to:
United States of America
|
| court | Supreme Court of the United States ⓘ |
| dateDecided | 1983 ⓘ |
| decisionType | landmark decision ⓘ |
| establishes | totality of the circumstances test for evaluating probable cause based on informants’ tips ⓘ |
| holding | The rigid two-pronged Aguilar–Spinelli test is abandoned in favor of a more flexible totality of the circumstances approach. ⓘ |
| impact | lower courts generally apply totality of the circumstances rather than Aguilar–Spinelli for informant tips ⓘ |
| jurisdiction |
United States
ⓘ
linked to:
United States of America
|
| legalIssue |
probable cause
ⓘ
use of informants’ tips ⓘ |
| legalPrinciple |
deficiencies in one factor may be compensated for by a strong showing of another factor under totality of the circumstances
ⓘ
veracity, reliability, and basis of knowledge remain relevant but are not rigid requirements ⓘ |
| majorityOpinionBy | William H. Rehnquist ⓘ |
| overrulesOrModifies | Aguilar–Spinelli test ⓘ |
| party |
Lance Gates
ⓘ
Susan Gates ⓘ |
| precedentFor | later Fourth Amendment probable cause cases ⓘ |
| reasoning |
probable cause is a practical, nontechnical concept based on common-sense judgments
ⓘ
rigid tests are inconsistent with the flexible nature of probable cause ⓘ |
| replacedStandard |
Aguilar–Spinelli two-pronged test
ⓘ
linked to:
Aguilar–Spinelli test
|
| result | search warrant upheld under totality of the circumstances ⓘ |
| standardAnnounced | totality of the circumstances ⓘ |
| stateParty | Illinois ⓘ |
| subjectMatter | use of an anonymous letter to establish probable cause ⓘ |
| topic |
anonymous informant tips
ⓘ
standards for issuing search warrants ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: The rigid two-pronged Aguilar–Spinelli test is abandoned in favor of a more flexible totality of the circumstances approach. Description of subject: This is the central holding of Illinois v. Gates, a landmark 1983 U.S. Supreme Court decision that reshaped the standard for evaluating probable cause based on informants’ tips under the Fourth Amendment.
Referenced by (1)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
Illinois v. Gates
→
holding
→
The rigid two-pronged Aguilar–Spinelli test is abandoned in favor of a more flexible totality of the circumstances approach.
ⓘ