Will Grigg?s Liberty Minute

May 23, 2011

The Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution specifies that to be valid, a search warrant must offer a specific description of ?the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.? This provision was inspired by the widespread use of so-called ?Writs of Assistance? by British occupation forces ? open-ended warrants permitting searches of any premises the soldiers wanted to invade.

Jose Guerena, the 26-year-old Iraq war veteran gunned down in his own home by a Tucson SWAT team on May 5, was not a criminal suspect. According to police union attorney Michael Storie, the search warrant issued for the raid ?was not directed at any particular person, and Guerena?s home was not mentioned, but it was targeting whoever might be inside the residence??

This means that the search warrant was not constitutionally valid ? and the SWAT raid was legally indistinguishable from a home invasion robbery carried out by any other armed gang.

The death of Jose Guerena is one of many similar tragedies that have accumulated in recent years. But the murder of a Marine veteran in his own home may generate justified outrage and help reverse the militarization of the police.

Let us take back the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free.