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Warrant

A writ permitting or directing someone to take some action.  Frequently, the term refers to a writ from a judge, permitting law enforcement personnel to take some action, such as make an arrest, search a location, or seize some piece of property. See Search Warrant, Fourth Amendment.

Definition from Nolo’s Plain-English Law Dictionary

Definition provided by Nolo’s Plain-English Law Dictionary.

August 19, 2010, 5:26 pm

 

The police are investigating a burglary.  Of particular interest is a missing watch.  An officer happens to see the victim's neighbor, Lisa, throw a watch into the trash can next to her house.  "Stupid thing doesn't even work," Lisa shouts within earshot of the police.

An officer wants to examine the discarded watch, but reasonably concludes that it is within the curtilage of Lisa's house.  After all, the trash can sits next to Lisa's house behind a short picket fence, with a sign saying that the garbage is off limits to the public.  Rummaging through Lisa's trash now would most likely violate the Fourth Amendment.

Not willing to risk that any evidence will be suppressed under the exclusionary rule, the police officer obtains a search warrant.  In his affidavit, the officer attests to the following facts: a burglary took place, a watch was taken, and next day, the victim's neighbor placed a watch into her trash can while saying that it "doesn't even work."  Seeing probable cause that a crime was committed and that the evidence is in Lisa's trash can, a magistrate judge grants a warrant to search Lisa's trash can.  

The watch is the same one that was stolen from the victim's home.  The watch can now be admitted at trial against Lisa.

"The purpose of a warrant is to allow a neutral judicial officer to assess whether the police have probable cause to make an arrest or conduct a search.  As we have often explained, the placement of this checkpoint between the Government and the citizen implicitly acknowledges that an 'officer engaged in the often competitive enterprise of ferreting out crime,' may lack sufficient objectivity to weigh correctly the strength of the evidence supporting the contemplated action against the individual's interests in protecting his own liberty and the privacy of his home."

"[W]hile an arrest warrant and a search warrant both serve to subject the probable-cause determination of the police to judicial review, the interests protected by the two warrants differ.  An arrest warrant is issued by a magistrate upon a showing that probable cause exists to believe that the subject of the warrant has committed an offense and thus the warrant primarily serves to protect an individual from an unreasonable seizure.  A search warrant, in contrast is issued upon a showing of probable cause to believe that the legitimate object of a search is located in a particular place, and therefore safeguards an individual's interest in the privacy of his home and possessions against the unjustified intrusion of the police."

Steagald v. United States, 451 U.S. 204, 212-13 (1981) (citation omitted).