Sotomayor the Originalist?

November 8th, 2011

Somewhat surprisingly in United States v. Jones, Sotomayor inquires about general warrants (also known as writs of assistance):

JUSTICE SOTOMAYOR: Tell me what the difference between this and a general warrant is? I mean –

MR. DREEBEN: A general warrant –

JUSTICE SOTOMAYOR: — what motivated the Fourth Amendment historically was the disapproval, the outrage, that our Founding Fathers experienced with general warrants that permitted police indiscriminately to investigate just on the basis of suspicion, not probable cause and to invade every possession that the individual had in search of a crime. How is this different -MR. DREEBEN: A warrant authorizes –

JUSTICE SOTOMAYOR: — this kind of surveillance where there is no probable cause, there is not even necessarily reasonable suspicion in

Scalia must be rubbing off on his fellow NYer.