The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1917-03-19
That Is Opinion of Assistant
Atty GenI MOngOmmery.
He Says the Bone Dry Law Does
Not Authorize 1t.
PEOPLE SLEEP ON RIGHTS
They Are Protected Until War
rant Is Issued Against Them.
New Hope Held Out to the
Thirsty of Kansas.

If a liquor investigator seizes your
grip or suitcase while returning from
q pilgrimage to wet territory, it is
your own fault. If a peace officer en-
! ters your home to look for the family
bottle you have overlooked your
rights. That was the opinion today of
W. P. Montgomery, special assistant
attorney general The search and
seizure act docs not apply to the bone
I dry law, Montgomery holds.
! Under the present Interpretation of
I the law, man is not compelled to
permit an officer of the law to search
his personal luggage in an effort to
IND liquor. Nor has Z peace officer
right 10 enter a mans home except
where a warrant has been obtained
/ charging actual sales or maintaining
nuisance.
The bone dry law doesn't say n
word about drinking liquor. 1t pro-
! hlbits its possession. But man who
possesses a bottle of liquor, can take
a drink-1f no one sees him-and he
hasn't maintained nuisance unless
persons are permitted to gather in the
home for the purpose of drinking. The
Montgomery opinion goes long way
toward handing back to the thirsty
kansan few of the personal privi-
/ leges which he felt had been denied
under the bone dry enactment.
| Since the passage of the stringent
ant1-l1quor law, a number of peace Of
| ficers have searched grips and suit
causes of persons returning from KAN
sas City. By permitting such action,
Montgomery holds, the owner of the
suit case waived his rights. OF course,
where liquor was found, the owner
was guilty of violating the law.
No Right to Search.
There isn't a thing in the law that
permits an officer to search a grip or
suitcase in u mans possession" said
doesn't provide n search and seizure
provision. OF course suit cases have
been searched. But the officers were
/ simply able to get away with it. That
all. And where bottle of liquor was
found, there wasn't the least doubt
about a mans guilt.
Neither is an officer permitted to
search a persons home to look for a
bottle, continued the special assist
AM attorney general "Of course if
an officer looks in the window and
sees a man take a drink, he can make
an arrest and the man is guilty of
owning liquor. But a search and seiz-
IRE warrant cannot be issued in liquor
cases except where sales are charged
or where it is charged that a nuisance
is maintained and persons are permit
ed TO gather fer the purpose of drink
! ing III violation of the law
Absence of the search and seizure
provision of the liquor law from the
bone dry act, seems to be the one
thing on which the man with a trusty
family bottle car rely for protection
of his personal liberties" 1t is con-
strued to mean that if a man permits
an officer to search his grip or enter
his home to look for liquor he simply
valves right provided under the law.
"Of course if a man is in possession
= of cases and packages which look too
suspicious, the officer is probably ius-
titled in taking a chance" explained
Montgomery, who has a record for
crusading in the bad lands of Chero-
kee and Crawford counties. But there
isn't anything in the law to permit the
promiscuous grabbing of grips"