Court Opinion

ID: 9685068
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 14:22:25.976905+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:18:02.089466
License: Public Domain

FOSHEIM, Justice
(dissenting).
The warrant authorized the search of the house and all buildings on the described real estate “for any and all equipment used in the manufacture of hashish or other substance derived from the marijuana plant.” This is exactly the type of warrant found so pernicious by our Founding Fathers who required that search warrants particularly describe the items to be seized.1
The requirement that warrants shall particularly describe the things to be seized makes general searches under them impossible and prevents the seizure of one thing under a warrant describing another. As to what is to be taken, nothing is left to the discretion of the officer executing the warrant.
Marron v. United States, 275 U.S. 192, 196, 48 S.Ct. 74, 76, 72 L.Ed. 231 (1927); Payton v. New York, 445 U.S. 573, 100 S.Ct. 1371, 63 L.Ed.2d 639 (1980); Walter v. United States, 447 U.S. 649, 100 S.Ct. 2395, 65 L.Ed.2d 410 (1980). Here the items returned were obviously seized at the discretion of the searchers. It is impossible to match up the “Receipt, Inventory of Property Seized,” attached to the returned warrant, with anything particularized in the warrant because nothing is particularized in the warrant.
Since the law enforcement officers were operating pursuant to a general search warrant, and therefore not lawfully on the premises, the plain view doctrine does not apply to this case. Harris v. United States, 390 U.S. 234, 88 S.Ct. 992, 19 L.Ed.2d 1067 (1968).

. U.S.Const. amend. IV, reads in part: “[N]o Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.” S.D.Const. art. VI, § II, reads in part: “[N]o warrant shall issue but upon probable cause supported by affidavit, particularly describing the place to be searched and the person or thing to be seized.”