High Court to Officers: Check Paperwork (we won one)

[Florida_Geek]

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-Scotus-Bad-Warrant.html

February 24, 2004
High Court to Officers: Check Paperwork
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Filed at 7:24 p.m. ET

WASHINGTON (AP) -- A divided Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that a federal agent can be sued for violating the constitutional rights of a couple during a search of their ranch, refusing to shield officers from personal liability when they make mistakes on search warrants.

The court, on a 5-4 vote, said that a mistake in the paperwork for a 1997 search in rural Montana was serious enough to allow a lawsuit against the officer who led a team of people on a fruitless hunt for illegal automatic weapons.

Officers are ordinarily immune from lawsuits over their conduct on duty, but the high court has made exceptions when they violate someone's constitutional rights

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Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas said the search was not unconstitutional
..more at article...

Gee why would have have guessed Scalia and Thomas voted on the wrong side of this one