---
title: "Good Faith Exception"
type: Legal Term
source: https://casebriefly.com/legal-terms/good-faith-exception
---

# Good Faith Exception

The good faith exception to the exclusionary rule, established in United States v. Leon (1984), holds that evidence obtained by officers acting in objectively reasonable reliance on a facially valid warrant issued by a neutral magistrate is admissible even if the warrant is later found to be defective (e.g., lacking probable cause). The rationale is that the exclusionary rule's deterrent purpose is not served by punishing officers who acted reasonably. Leon identified four situations where good faith reliance is not available: when the magistrate was misled by affiant dishonesty, when the magistrate wholly abandoned the judicial role, when the affidavit was so lacking in probable cause that belief in its existence was entirely unreasonable, and when the warrant was so facially deficient that officers could not reasonably presume it to be valid. The doctrine has been extended to reliance on binding appellate precedent (Davis v. United States, 2011) and on negligent recordkeeping errors (Herring v. United States, 2009).

## Related Terms

- exclusionary-rule-4th-am
- warrant-requirement
- inevitable-discovery
- independent-source-doctrine

## Related Cases

- arizona-v-gant

## Example

Officers executed a search warrant for a suspected meth lab, but the warrant was later invalidated because the supporting affidavit lacked probable cause; however, the evidence was admitted under the good faith exception because the officers reasonably relied on the magistrate's determination.

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Source: [Good Faith Exception — CaseBriefly](https://casebriefly.com/legal-terms/good-faith-exception)