Spinelli v. United States
E522193
Spinelli v. United States is a 1969 U.S. Supreme Court decision that refined the standards for evaluating probable cause based on informants’ tips under the Fourth Amendment, later modified by the more flexible totality-of-the-circumstances test in Illinois v. Gates.
All labels observed (2)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Spinelli v. United States canonical | 4 |
| William Spinelli v. United States | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T5478436 — 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: Spinelli v. United States Context triple: [Illinois v. Gates, relatedCase, Spinelli v. United States]
-
A.
Printz v. United States
Printz v. United States is a 1997 U.S. Supreme Court decision that limited federal power by holding that Congress cannot compel state or local officials to implement federal regulatory programs.
-
B.
Dennis v. United States
Dennis v. United States is a landmark 1951 U.S. Supreme Court decision that upheld the convictions of Communist Party leaders under the Smith Act, significantly shaping First Amendment jurisprudence on speech advocating the overthrow of the government.
-
C.
Reynolds v. United States
Reynolds v. United States is an 1879 U.S. Supreme Court case that established the distinction between protected religious belief and regulable religiously motivated conduct, holding that the Free Exercise Clause does not excuse individuals from compliance with otherwise valid criminal laws such as those banning polygamy.
-
D.
Ocampo v. United States
Ocampo v. United States is a 1914 U.S. Supreme Court decision that applied and developed the Insular Cases framework governing constitutional rights in unincorporated American territories.
-
E.
Light v. United States
Light v. United States is a 1911 U.S. Supreme Court case that upheld broad federal authority to regulate and control the use of public lands, including grazing, under the Property Clause of the Constitution.
- 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: Spinelli v. United States Target entity description: Spinelli v. United States is a 1969 U.S. Supreme Court decision that refined the standards for evaluating probable cause based on informants’ tips under the Fourth Amendment, later modified by the more flexible totality-of-the-circumstances test in Illinois v. Gates.
-
A.
Printz v. United States
Printz v. United States is a 1997 U.S. Supreme Court decision that limited federal power by holding that Congress cannot compel state or local officials to implement federal regulatory programs.
-
B.
Dennis v. United States
Dennis v. United States is a landmark 1951 U.S. Supreme Court decision that upheld the convictions of Communist Party leaders under the Smith Act, significantly shaping First Amendment jurisprudence on speech advocating the overthrow of the government.
-
C.
Reynolds v. United States
Reynolds v. United States is an 1879 U.S. Supreme Court case that established the distinction between protected religious belief and regulable religiously motivated conduct, holding that the Free Exercise Clause does not excuse individuals from compliance with otherwise valid criminal laws such as those banning polygamy.
-
D.
Ocampo v. United States
Ocampo v. United States is a 1914 U.S. Supreme Court decision that applied and developed the Insular Cases framework governing constitutional rights in unincorporated American territories.
-
E.
Light v. United States
Light v. United States is a 1911 U.S. Supreme Court case that upheld broad federal authority to regulate and control the use of public lands, including grazing, under the Property Clause of the Constitution.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (40)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf | United States Supreme Court case ⓘ |
| appliedTest |
Aguilar two-pronged test
ⓘ
linked to:
Aguilar–Spinelli test
|
| areaOfLaw |
United States constitutional law
ⓘ
United States criminal procedure ⓘ |
| citation |
21 L. Ed. 2d 637
ⓘ
393 U.S. 410 ⓘ 89 S. Ct. 584 ⓘ |
| clarified | requirements for corroboration of informant information by independent police investigation ⓘ |
| constitutionalProvision | Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution ⓘ |
| court | Supreme Court of the United States ⓘ |
| decisionDate | 1969-01-27 ⓘ |
| dissentingOpinionBy |
Justice Byron R. White
ⓘ
linked to:
Byron R. White
Justice Hugo L. Black ⓘ
linked to:
Hugo L. Black
Justice Potter Stewart ⓘ
linked to:
Potter Stewart
Justice William J. Brennan Jr. ⓘ
linked to:
William J. Brennan Jr.
|
| fullCaseName |
William Spinelli v. United States
ⓘ
linked to:
Spinelli v. United States
|
| holding |
An informant’s tip must be evaluated under a two-pronged test requiring a showing of the informant’s basis of knowledge and veracity or reliability.
ⓘ
The affidavit supporting the search warrant did not establish probable cause under the standards required by the Fourth Amendment. ⓘ |
| impact | Influenced state and federal standards for evaluating informant-based probable cause until Illinois v. Gates. ⓘ |
| issue | Whether an FBI affidavit relying in part on an informant’s tip established probable cause for issuance of a search warrant. ⓘ |
| joinedByInMajority |
Chief Justice Earl Warren
ⓘ
linked to:
Earl Warren
Justice Abe Fortas ⓘ
linked to:
Abe Fortas
Justice Thurgood Marshall ⓘ
linked to:
Thurgood Marshall
Justice William J. Brennan Jr. ⓘ
linked to:
William J. Brennan Jr.
Justice William O. Douglas ⓘ
linked to:
William O. Douglas
|
| jurisdiction | federal ⓘ |
| laterModifiedBy | Illinois v. Gates ⓘ |
| laterModifiedByDoctrine | totality-of-the-circumstances test for probable cause ⓘ |
| legalSubject |
criminal procedure
ⓘ
search and seizure ⓘ |
| legalTest | Aguilar–Spinelli test ⓘ |
| majorityOpinionBy |
Justice John Marshall Harlan II
ⓘ
linked to:
John M. Harlan II
|
| petitioner | William Spinelli ⓘ |
| precedentFor | Aguilar–Spinelli test for evaluating informant tips in probable cause determinations ⓘ |
| refined | standards for evaluating probable cause based on informants’ tips ⓘ |
| relatedCase |
Aguilar v. Texas
ⓘ
Illinois v. Gates ⓘ |
| respondent |
United States
ⓘ
linked to:
United States of America
|
| result | Conviction reversed ⓘ |
| term |
Warren Court
ⓘ
linked to:
Warren Court era
|
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: Spinelli v. United States Description of subject: Spinelli v. United States is a 1969 U.S. Supreme Court decision that refined the standards for evaluating probable cause based on informants’ tips under the Fourth Amendment, later modified by the more flexible totality-of-the-circumstances test in Illinois v. Gates.
Referenced by (5)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
linked to: Spinelli v. United States