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D's charter authorizes the issuance of certain arrest warrants by clerks of the Tampa Municipal Court. A clerk of the municipal court is appointed by the city clerk from a classified list of civil servants and assigned to work in the municipal court. The statute does not specify the qualifications necessary for this job, but no law degree or special legal training is required. The clerk's duties are to receive traffic fines, prepare the court's dockets and records, fill out commitment papers, and perform other routine clerical tasks. A clerk may issue subpoenas. He may not sit as a judge, and he may not issue a search warrant or even a felony or misdemeanor arrest warrant for violations of state laws. The only warrants he may issue are for the arrest of those charged with having breached municipal ordinances of D. P was arrested for impaired driving on a warrant issued by a clerk of the municipal court. P contends that the Fourth Amendment requires that warrants be issued by 'judicial officers' and argues that even this limited warrant authority is constitutionally invalid. P contends that a judicial officer must be a lawyer or the municipal court judge himself. He moved the court to quash the warrant on the ground that it was issued by a nonjudicial officer in violation of the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments. The motion was denied. P then filed a writ of common-law certiorari. The state proceedings culminated in the holding of the Florida Supreme Court that 'the clerk and deputy clerks of the municipal court of D are neutral and detached 'magistrates' . . . for the purpose of issuing arrest warrants within the requirements of the United States Constitution . . . .' P appealed.

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