Re:[DL] The West and the 4th Amendment

[GriffithC@aol.com]

I wouldn't worry too much about the technicalities of search warrants in the 
Old West. First of all, the 4th Amendment (Unreasonable Search & Seizure) 
only applied to Federal crimes until mid-20th century when the Supreme Court 
used the 14th Amendment to say that state and federal courts had to observe 
the Bill of Rights. So a town marshal or county sheriff in the Old West 
didn't give a flip for no 4th Amendment. And it wasn't until the 20th century 
that the courts started throwing out evidence acquired through an unlawful 
search (again, except perhaps in federal cases). However, even today, police 
can still initiate a search based on "probable cause" which can be pretty 
broad. Of course, in the Old West the degree of probable cause leeway could 
depend on whether the judge and sheriff were pals or whether the person being 
searched was a local nobody or some rich banker who was an important 
contributor to the Governor's campaign.

And of course, all that is moot in the Confederacy anyway, which doesn't 
recognize the U.S. Constitution. Not being a Confederate Constitutional 
scholar, but being a Southerner, I could imagine the South having even 
stricter rules governing search and seizure because Southerners are flat out 
nuts about protecting their property rights. My suspicion is if a Southern 
home owner shot a sheriff who entered his home, no Southern jury would 
convict him because he was just protecting his own.

Just some thoughts,
Clay Griffith