Writing about the French Revolution in 1790, British statesman Edmund Burke warned that criminal means, once tolerated, are soon preferred.

Burke's warning applies to the so-called war on drugs, which has been used to institutionalize corrupt and criminal practices by law enforcement, among them a variety of official theft called asset forfeiture.

Thanks to a June 8 decision by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, carjacking is now permitted by counter-narcotics agents. The case involved a December 2004 incident in which federal and local law enforcement staged a elaborate carjacking in order to conduct a warrantless search of a suspected drug trafficker's vehicle.

Narcotics were found in the car. But the search could have been conducted without police committing a crime.

In approving the police carjacking, Ninth Circuit Judge Raymond C. Fisher wrote: ?I do not ... mean to endorse this police action as a model for further creative seizures.? But that decision will inspire further outbursts of criminal creativity by those entrusted to enforce the law.

Let us stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free.