Search Warrant

[Martin H. Belsky]

Let me join in the request that Professor Laycock draft a short letter or
even an op-ed piece to the New York Times.

At a community meeting this morning, a number of individuals who I beleive
had open minds were bothered by the "gestopo tactics" and that, as
"Professor Tribe pointed out in the Times, could have been avoided by
following proper judicial and judicious procedure."

Maybe - a joint letter should be considered.  Friendly in nature : "Larry,
you are wrong"  would be a nice opening line.  Signed -- "Your colleagues
Throughout the Nation"

At 07:58 PM 4/26/00 -0400, you wrote:
>I recommend that Prof. Laycock forward this note to the NYTimes, because
now probably
>millions of Americans have been confused by Tribe's (dare I say
it?)"diatribe" (heheh)
>
>Leslie
>Douglas Laycock wrote:
>
>>         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
>
--
Martin H. Belsky
Dean & Professor of Law
University of Tulsa College of Law
3120 E. 4th Place
Tulsa, OK 74104
918-631-2400
918-631-3126 [Fax]
martin-belsky at utulsa.edu