Liberty Minute July 16 2013

ATF Special Agent Ashley Stephens visited the home of Claudia Moore, a suspected drug dealer with a felony conviction on her record. After Stephens knocked on Moore?s front door, he was greeted by a man named Mark Mongold, who was described as having ?prison tattoos.? The agent also claimed to smell marijuana.

Describing those factors as a threat to ?officer safety,? the agents demanded access to the home to conduct a ?protective sweep,? during which ammunition and drugs were found. A district court denied Mongold?s motion to suppress the evidence, which was based on the fact that the search took place without a warrant.

The US. Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals overturned the district court and suppressed the evidence, noting that the ATF agents ?could most easily have protected the officers? safety by leaving [the] home, not by entering it.?

The Tenth Circuit quite sensibly slapped down this cynical argument for a warrantless search, but it was careful to specify that its sensible ruling is not to be used as a precedent. So we?ve not seen the end of cynical efforts by police to invent pretexts to violate the Fourth Amendment.

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