Search warrant

“ With respect to search warrants, the Fourth Amendment provides that 'no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.' The majority concedes that the police did show probable cause for the issuance of the warrant. The majority does not contest that the warrant particularly described the place to be searched, and the thing to be seized. ”

“ The Court held that the arrest and others made subsequently had been valid, but that the unexplained failure of the agents to procure a search warrant-in spite of the fact that they had had more than enough time before the raid to do so rendered the search unlawful. The opinion stated:
'It is a cardinal rule that, in seizing goods and articles, law enforcement agents must secure and use search warrants wherever reasonably practicable. ”

“ The clear-cut issue before us is this: in making a lawful arrest, may arresting officers search without a search warrant not merely the person under arrest or things under his immediate physical control, but the premises where the arrest is made, although there was ample time to secure such a warrant and no danger that the 'papers and effects' for which a search warrant could be issued would be despoiled or destroyed? ”

“ Even where a search warrant is obtained, the police must show a basis for the search beyond the mere fact of an assertion by an informer. Aguilar v. State of Texas, 378 U.S. 108, 84 S.Ct. 1509, 12 L.Ed.2d 723. At least as much is required to support a search without a warrant. ”

“ Unless these circumstances are identified and applied, any warrant authorizing a search for a particular document might, in conjunction with the plain view exception, permit "a government official to use a seemingly precise and legal warrant only as a ticket to get into a man's home, and, once inside, to launch forth upon unconfined searches and indiscriminate seizures as if armed with all the unbridled and illegal power of a general warrant." ”

“ As a general rule, it has also required the judgment of a magistrate on the probable-cause issue and the issuance of a warrant before a search is made. Only in exigent circumstances will the judgment of the police as to probable cause serve as a sufficient authorization for a search. Carroll, supra, holds a search warrant unnecessary where there is probable cause to search an automobile stopped on the highway; the car is movable, the occupants are alerted, and the car's contents may never be found again if a warrant must be obtained. ”

“ Even when officers are justified in searching other rooms, they may seize only items within the arrestee's possession or immediate control or items in plain view discovered during the course of a search reasonably directed at discovering a hiding suspect. Hence a warrantless home entry is likely to uncover far less evidence than a search conducted under authority of a search warrant. ”

“ When investigators fail to limit themselves to the particulars in the warrant, both the particularity requirement and the probable cause requirement are drained of all significance as restraining mechanisms, and the warrant limitation becomes a practical nullity. Obedience to the particularity requirement both in drafting and executing a search warrant is therefore essential to protect against the centuries-old fear of general searches and seizures. ”

“ If it becomes evident that nothing can be found without a meticulous uprooting of a man's home, it is time for the law enforcement officers to secure a warrant. And if such a search has any reasonableness at all, it is a reasonableness that must be determined through the informed and deliberate judgment of a magistrate. 'Security against unlawful searches is more likely to be attained by resort to search warrants than by reliance upon the caution and sagacity of petty officers while acting under the excitement that attends the capture of persons accused of crime.' United States v. ”

“ If the search warrant were illegal, or if the officer serving the warrant exceeded his authority, the party on whose complaint the warrant issued, or the officer, would be responsible for the wrong done; but this is no good reason for excluding the papers seized as evidence if they were pertinent to the issue, as they unquestionably were. When papers are offered in evidence the court can take no notice how they were obtained, whether lawfully or unlawfully ”

“ The warrant procedure is designed to guarantee that a decision to search private property is justified by a reasonable governmental interest. But reasonableness is still the ultimate standard. If a valid public interest justifies the intrusion contemplated, then there is probable cause to issue a suitably restricted search warrant. ”

“ Others may be more guarded in their admissions. But all will realize that it is now far better for them to forego securing a search warrant, which is limited in scope by the Fourth Amendment to those articles set forth with particularity in the warrant. Under today's decision, a warrant of arrest for a particular crime authorizes an unlimited search of one's home from cellar to attic for evidence of 'anything' that might come to light, whether bearing on the crime charged or any other crime. A search warrant is not only unnecessary ”

“ The State does not deny that the search and seizure were without a warrant, and it is settled for purposes of the Amendment that 'except in certain carefully defined classes of cases, a search of private property without proper consent is 'unreasonable' unless it has been authorized by a valid search warrant.' Camara v. ”

“ If a house is on fire or if the police see a fugitive enter a building, entry without a search warrant can of course be made. Yet absent such extraordinary situations, the right of privacy must yield only when a judicial officer issues a warrant for a search on a showing of probable cause. ”

“ I. Search warrants are "normally drafted by nonlawyers in the midst and haste of a criminal investigation." United States v. Ventresca, 380 U.S. 102, 108, 13 L. Ed. 2d 684, 85 S.C.t. 741 (1965) . Consequently, they are to be read "in a commonsense and realistic fashion." Id. Here, the "commonsense and realistic" reading is that the issuing magistrate intended to authorize a search of all the occupants of the premises and that the warrant did so. Five points are important to keep in mind. ”

“ Counsel for the United States submit that while under the Espionage Act (section 11) a search warrant not executed within ten days becomes invalid, the statute does not inhibit utilization of an outlawed warrant as a mere form or blank when preparing a new one based upon the original affidavit; that here the act of the Commissioner in changing the date upon the July 6th warrant and then reissuing it under date of July 27th was to all intents and purposes the issuing of an entirely new and valid warrant supported by the Dodd affidavit of July 6th. ”

“ We cannot allow the constitutional barrier that protects the privacy of the individual to be hurdled so easily. Moreover, when we move to the scene of the crime, the reason for the absence of a search warrant is even less obvious. When the officers heard the adding machine and, at the latest, when they saw what was transpiring in the room, they certainly had adequate grounds for seeking a search warrant. ”

“ Any assumption that evidence sufficient to support a magistrate's disinterested determination to issue a search warrant will justify the officers in making a search without a warrant would reduce the Amendment to a nullity and leave the people's homes secure only in the discretion of police officers.' Pp. ”

“ Unquestionably, when a person is lawfully arrested, the police have the right, without a search warrant, to make a contemporaneous search of the person of the accused for weapons or for the fruits of or implements used to commit the crime. ”

“ The probable cause approach is unhelpful when analysis centers upon the reasonableness of routine administrative caretaking functions, particularly when no claim is made that the protective procedures are a subterfuge for criminal investigations.
In view of the noncriminal context of inventory searches, and the inapplicability in such a setting of the requirement of probable cause, courts have held — and quite correctly — that search warrants are not required, linked as the warrant requirement textually is to the probable cause concept. ”

“ But to the individual whose possessory interest has been invaded, it matters not why the police officer decided to omit a particular item from his application for a search warrant. When an officer with probable cause to seize an item fails to mention that item in his application for a search warrant-for whatever reason-and then seizes the item anyway, his conduct is per se unreasonable. Suppression of the evidence so seized will encourage officers to be more precise and complete in future warrant applications. ”

“ The requirement applies both to arrest and search warrants. A description of a suspect merely as 'Blackie Toy,' operator of a laundry somewhere on Leavenworth Street, hardly is information 'particularly describing * * * the person * * * to be seized.' Such information is no better than the wholesale or 'dragnet' search warrant, which we have condemned. ”

“ As described above, the government resorted to a search warrant only after the former President failed to return missing records as requested by NARA and then as required by a grand jury subpoena. See supra at 4–5, 8–10. The government’s seizure of these records through use of a search warrant is a direct result of Plaintiff’s own conduct, and this “inequitable conduct” “make [s] equitable relief inappropriate.” ”

“ There is a reasonable military operational necessity that is reasonably believed to prohibit or prevent communication with a person empowered to grant a search warrant or authorization and there is a reasonable belief that the delay necessary to obtain a search warrant or search authorization would result in the removal, destruction, or concealment of the property or evidence sought ”

“ Thus a good faith attempt to stay within the boundaries of an inherently broad warrant will support a finding that the search-taken as a whole-was reasonable, even though a majority of documents seized might turn out not to qualify for inclusion on more leisurely reflection. We must emphasize at this point, however, that our concern with the agents' obedience to the limitations of the warrant relates solely to determining whether a violation of such egregious magniture occurred that all fruits of the search must be suppressed. ”

“ Search warrant standard.—A Federal judge may issue a search warrant under this section only if the foreign offense for which the evidence is sought involves conduct that, if committed in the United States, would be considered an offense punishable by imprisonment for more than one year under Federal or State law. ”

“ Petitioners contend that the search was unreasonable in that the officers could practicably have obtained a search warrant. The practicability of obtaining a warrant is not the controlling factor when a search is sought to be justified as incident to arrest, United States v. ”

“ Third, the searching agents must come upon the unspecified items inadvertently. We find the first limitation satisfied, and turn immediately to the latter two. FN58. See Part II C (2) supra.
The requirement that items seized under plain view must display a plain, immediately apparent incriminating character derives from the need to protect the integrity of the warrant and prevent against random rummaging.
(T) he extension of the original justification (for the search warrant) is legitimate only where it is immediately apparent to the police that they have evidence before them ”

“ The search of the petitioner's room by the police officers was conducted without a warrant of any kind, and it therefore 'can survive constitutional inhibition only upon a showing that the surrounding facts brought it within one of the exceptions to the rule that a search must rest upon a search warrant. ”

“ Inventory searches, however, are not conducted in order to discover evidence of crime. The officer does not make a discretionary determination to search based on a judgment that certain conditions are present. Inventory searches are conducted in accordance with established police department rules or policy, and occur whenever an automobile is seized. There are thus no special facts for a neutral magistrate to evaluate.
A related purpose of the warrant requirement is to prevent hindsight from affecting the evaluation of the reasonableness of a search. ”

“ The test is the reason underlying and expressed by the Fourth Amendment: the history and the experience which it embodies and the safeguards afforded by it against the evils to which it was a response. There must be a warrant to permit search, barring only inherent limitations upon that requirement when there is a good excuse for not getting a search warrant, i.e., the justifications that dispense with search warrants when searching the person in his extension, which is his body and that which his body can immediately control, and moving vehicles. ”