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Drug task force case at SCOTUS would deputize informants to override Fourth Amendment warrant requirement

The threshold for police securing search warrants, or searching without them, has been chipped away in recent years to absurdist points, where Fourth Amendment law now has a "through the looking glass" feel that frequently seems to ignore the plain language in the Bill of Rights.The Supreme Court has agreed to take a case, Pearson v. Callahan, generated by a Byrne-grant funded drug task force in Utah that I fear will further emasculate the Fourth Amendment in the name of expediency and the drug war. Reports Linda Greenhouse in the NY Times. (Justices to weigh search and consent, March 25):Several federal circuits have adopted what has come to be called a consent-once-removed exception to the Fourth Amendment?s warrant requirement. The theory is that a suspect who consents to the entry of someone who is really an agent of the police is also, albeit unknowingly, agreeing to let the police enter as well...continue to full post

Full post as published by Grits for Breakfast on March 25, 2008 (boomark / email).