January 18, 1965
In Stanford v. Texas, the US Supreme Court added another level of constitutional consideration for the issuance of search warrants when articles of expression, protected by the First Amendment, are among the items to be taken. In effect, when a state issues a warrant that includes the order to seize books, it must accord the “most scrupulous exactitude” to the language of the Fourth Amendment. John Stanford, a stalwart of the San Antonio peace movement, died in 2013.
