Search Warrant

[Douglas Laycock]

        I have now read the search warrant that Michael Masinter posted.  I must
say that I simply do not understand Larry Tribe's point in the New York
Times.

        The warrant expressly describes Elian Gonzales as the person to be seized.
 It expressly authorizes execution in the nighttime.  It is on a form
designed for the seizure of either persons or things, requring the judge to
specify the person or thing to be seized, and requiring the judge to choose
between authorizing execution only during daylight hours or at any time.

        I am open to the argument that we should provide more procedural
protection than we do before issuing search warrants, but given our general
law of warrants, I have no idea what Larry Tribe thinks was wrong with this
one.  Certainly they were not going to arrest Elian, although so far as I
know, an arrest warrant would simply have been a different form, with no
more real procedural protection.




Douglas Laycock
University of Texas Law School
727 E. Dean Keeton St.
Austin, TX  78705
        512-232-1341 (phone)
        512-471-6988 (fax)
        dlaycock at mail.law.utexas.edu