Everything about Warrant Law totally explained
Most often, the term
warrant refers to a specific type of
authorization; a
writ issued by a competent officer, usually a
judge or
magistrate, which s an otherwise illegal act that would violate
individual rights and affords the person executing the writ protection from
damages if the act is performed.
Warrants are typically issued by
courts and are directed to the
sheriff,
constable or a
police officer. The warrants issued by a court normally are
search warrants,
arrest warrants, and
execution warrants. A typical arrest warrant in the
United States will take the approximate form of:
» "This Court orders the Sheriff or Constable to find the named person, wherever he may be found, and deliver said person to the custody of the Court."
Warrants are also issued by other
government entities, particularly
legislatures, since most have the
power to compel the attendance of their members. This is called a
call of the house.
In the
United Kingdom, senior public appointments are made by
warrant under the
Royal sign-manual, the personal
signature of the
monarch, on the recommendation of the government. In an interesting survival from medieval times, these warrants abate (lose their force) on the death of the sovereign if they've not already been executed. This particularly applied to Death Warrants in the days when
England authorized
capital punishment. Perhaps the most celebrated example of this occurred on the
17 November 1558, when several
Protestant heretics were tied to their stakes in
Smithfield, and the
faggots were about to be lit, when a royal messenger rode up to announce that
Queen Mary had died, and that the warrants had lost their force. The first formal act of Mary's successor,
Elizabeth I, was to decline to re-issue the warrants, and the heretics were quietly released a few weeks later.
For many years, the British government had used a "general warrant" to enforce its laws. These warrants were broad in nature and didn't have specifics as to why they were issued or what the arrest was being made for. A general warrant placed almost no limitations on the search or arresting authority of a soldier or sheriff. This concept had become a serious problem when those in power issued general warrants to have their enemies arrested when no wrongdoing had been done. During the Middle Ages, the English government outlawed all general warrants. This study of the history of England made the
American Founding Fathers ensure that general warrants would be illegal in the United States as well when the
Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified in
1791.
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