Warrant (law)

“ The Criminal Law Amendment Act 1885 allows the issue of search warrants where it is suspected that a female is unlawfully detained for immoral purposes. Execution of the decisions of a court of summary jurisdiction is secured by warrants, part of the process of the court, such as warrants of distress or commitment. A warrant may also issue for the apprehension of a witness whose attendance cannot be otherwise assured. ”

“ As a general rule no one can be arrested without warrant. To this rule there are certain exceptions either at common law or by statute. At common law a justice of the peace, a sheriff, a coroner, a constable and even a private person, may arrest any one without warrant for a treason, felony or breach of the peace committed, or attempted to be committed, in his presence. ”

“ The Warrant Clause is something more than an exhortation to this Court to maximize social welfare as we see fit. It requires that the authorities must obtain a warrant before conducting a full-scale search. The undifferentiated governmental interest in law enforcement is insufficient to justify an exception to the warrant requirement. Rather, some special governmental interest beyond the need merely to apprehend lawbreakers is necessary to justify a categorical exception to the warrant requirement. ”

“ Likewise an attorney, notary-public, or any other person, who shall presume to draw up, negotiate, of even to witness a bill of sale, or other instrument for such commitment, &c. offends equally against the law, because "All, or any person or persons, that shall frame, contrive, write, seal, or countersign any warrant or writing for such commitment, detainer, imprisonment, or transportation; or shall be advising, aiding, or assisting in the same, or any of them," are liable to all the penalties of the act. ”

“ Any officer may, however, upon his own cognizance of a crime being committed, arrest the person or persons without warrant. If such authority were not given to officers of the law, many persons violating law would be able to escape before a warrant could be issued. Furthermore, under the laws of some States, any person who sees a crime committed is legally required to pursue and arrest the offending person and may himself be punished if he refuses to act. ”

“ The constitution declares that no warrant shall issue but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation; that no citizen shall be deprived of his liberty without due process of law; and that the accused shall enjoy the right of a speedy trial by a jury of the district where the offence was committed. Yet, in defiance of all these constitutional provisions, our citizens have been arrested without any warrant, and without any process of law whatever ”

“ Because the sole law enforcement purpose underlying third-party consent searches is avoiding the inconvenience of securing a warrant, a departure from the warrant requirement is not justified simply because an officer reasonably believes a third party has consented to a search of the defendant's home. ”

“ A sheriff, constable, or other peace officer may arrest without warrant any one whom he has reasonable ground for suspecting to be guilty of a felony, although it may turn out that no such felony was ever committed. For any ordinary misdemeanor he could not, at common law, arrest without a warrant, unless he personally witnessed the wrongful act or was near enough to hear sounds indicating what was being done. ”

“ It is primarily for the Court to determine whether or not such statements are admissible for your consideration but it is wholly for you to determine how much weight or credit you will give to these statements.' We shall assume as facts, therefore, only the testimony of Government witnesses and so much of the petitioners' evidence as is uncontradicted.↑ Under Tennessee law an officer may arrest without a warrant when a felony has in fact been committed, and he has reasonable grounds for believing that the person arrested has committed it. ”

“ Unless he is acting in consequence of a notice under sub-paragraph (3) above, a justice of the peace shall not issue a summons under this paragraph except on information and shall not issue a warrant under this paragraph except on information in writing and on oath. ”

“ It is true that the statute provides (§ 5270 [U.S.C.omp. Stat. 1901, p. 3591] ) , that the person before whom the complaint is made may 'issue his warrant for the apprehension of the person so charged, that he may be brought before such justice, judge, or commissioner to the end that the evidence of criminality may be heard and considered;' but the practice in this as in other proceedings of a criminal or quasi criminal nature has been to make the warrant returnable before the magistrate issuing the warrant, or some other magistrate competent to take jurisdiction of the proceedings. ”

“ The warrant, if issued by a competent court as to a matter over which it has jurisdiction, becomes a judicial authority to the person who executes it, and resistance to such a warrant is a criminal offence. ”

“ And in this light the writ appears like a warrant from a Justice of the Peace to search for stolen goods. Your Honors will find in the old books concerning the office of a Justice of the Peace, precedents of general warrants to search suspected houses. But in more modern books you will find only special warrants to search such and such houses specially named, in which the complainant has before sworn that he suspects his goods are concealed ; and you will find it adjudged that special warrants only are legal. ”

“ The requirement that warrants shall particularly describe the things to be seized makes general searches under them impossible and prevents the seizure of one thing under a warrant describing another. As to what is to be taken, nothing is left to the discretion of the officer executing the warrant. ”

“ The materials to be seized are instead described with sufficient particularity if the warrant readily permits their identification both by those entrusted with the warrant's execution and by the court in any subsequent judicial proceeding. "It is," the Court has said with reference to the particularity of the place to be searched, "enough if the description is such that the officer * * * can, with reasonable effort ascertain and identify" the warrant's objects. ”

“ The assertion is that the warrant is void for failure to observe the statutory requirement that it state the 'particular grounds or probable cause' for issuance, and for the further reason that it is based on affidavits which do not 'set forth the facts tending to establish the grounds of the application or probable cause for believing that they exist.' [3] We need not consider the alleged defect of the warrant, as we think the objection to the affidavits well taken, and the warrant consequently without lawful foundation. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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." ”

“ The warrants commonly made to break open and enter houses, which is done with rigour and great spoil, not sparing widows, fatherless, or poor families, who are sustained by their daily care and industry, not leaving them a bed to rest upon. The fines upon one justice’s warrants amounting to many hundreds of pounds; frequently ten pounds a warrant, and two warrants at once for twenty pounds, executed upon one person; and three warrants at once from another justice, for sixty pounds upon another person, and all his goods carried away in about ten cart loads ”

“ By its own regulations, the United States Government has conceded that although an American warrant might be a "dead letter" in a foreign country, a warrant procedure in an American court plays a vital and indispensable role in circumscribing the discretion of agents of the Federal Government. ”

“ Recent scholarship has suggested that in emphasizing the warrant requirement over the reasonableness of the search the Court has 'stood the fourth amendment on its head' from a historical standpoint. T. Taylor, Two Studies in Constitutional Interpretation 23-24 (1969) . This issue is perhaps most clearly presented in the case of a warrantless entry into a man's home to arrest him on probable cause. ”

“ A simple procedure is provided for what are called summons cases, as distinguished from warrant cases—the first being offences for which a police officer may arrest without warrant, the second being offences where he must have a warrant, or, in other words, minor offences and important offences. In summons cases no formal charge need be framed. The magistrate tells the accused the particulars of the offence charged; if he admits his guilt, he is convicted; if he does not, evidence is taken, and a finding is given in accordance with the facts as proved. ”

“ The Court has always held, and does not today deny, that when there is probable cause to search and it is 'impracticable' for one reason or another to get a search warrant, then a warrantless search may be reasonable. ”

“ 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. ”

“ For these reasons, although a warrant should be interpreted practically, it must be sufficiently definite and clear so that the magistrate, police, and search subjects can objectively ascertain its scope. Groh, 540 U.S. at , 157 L. Ed. 2d at 1080.
As the officers correctly observe, it is perfectly appropriate to construe a warrant in light of an accompanying affidavit or other document that is incorporated within the warrant. But to take advantage of this principle of interpretation, the warrant must expressly incorporate the affidavit. ”

“ Because the case fell within the exigent-circumstances exception to the warrant requirement, no warrant was necessary. Ibid. The search was not more intrusive than reasonably necessary to accomplish its goals. ”

“ Every warrant ought to specify the offence charged, the authority under which the arrest is to be made, the person who is to execute it and the person who is to be arrested. A warrant remains in force till executed or discharged by order of a court. An officer may break open doors in order to execute a warrant in cases of treason, felony or indictable offences, provided that, on demand, admittance cannot otherwise be obtained. ”

“ Where officers have probable cause to search a vehicle on a public way, a further limited exception to the warrant requirement is reasonable because 'the vehicle can be quickly moved out of the locality or jurisdiction in which the warrant must be sought.' Carroll v. ”

“ A United States marshal engaged in the execution of a warrant or other process of the United States court, in a case which involves the prosecution of a violation of the revenue laws, is entitled to the right of removal, now conferred by this statute. ”

“ That no expression of disapprobation by the plaintiff or his attorney of the act of the agent in issuing the distress warrant could defeat its operation as a waiver of the notice to quit, while the proceedings on the warrant were pending, and so long as the plaintiff held the forthcoming bond for the property distrained. ”

“ 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. ”

“ To the extent dangers to arresting officers may be implicated in a particular way in a particular case, they are better addressed through consideration of case-specific exceptions to the warrant requirement, such as the one for exigent circumstances. ”