DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – The Iowa Supreme Court has upheld a warrant used to search a suspected drug dealer’s residence even though a deputy failed to sign the application. Friday’s 4-3 ruling exposed differences among justices on whether officers and judges should be held to exacting standards when authorizing searches or if seemingly minor bureaucratic oversights can be excused.

At issue was an application that Scott County deputy Dan Furlong prepared to authorize the search of a Davenport home where a suspected drug dealer was staying.

Furlong didn’t sign the application spelling out why he believed there was cause for the search. But he verbally swore under oath to the information before Judge Henry Latham, who signed the warrant but failed to circle words in two spots indicating he found probable cause. The majority says the warrant is valid.