United States Supreme Court Cases & Opinions

U.S. Supreme Court

Marron v. United States, 275 U.S. 192 (1927)

Marron v. United States

No. 185

Argued October 12, 1927

Decided November 21, 1927

275 U.S. 192

Syllabus

1. The requirement of the Fourth Amendment 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. P. 275 U. S. 195.

2. Under the Fourth Amendment and Title 18, U.S. Code, a search warrant describing intoxicating liquors and articles for their manufacture does not authorize the seizure of a ledger and bills of account found in a search of the premises specified in the warrant. P. 275 U. S. 196.

3. Officers, in making a lawful search of premises where intoxicating liquors are being unlawfully sold, may lawfully arrest, without a warrant, a person there actually in charge of the premises and actually engaged, in the presence of the officers, in a conspiracy to maintain them, and may contemporaneously, as an incident to the arrest, seize account books and papers not described in the search warrant, but which are used in carrying on the criminal enterprise and are found on the premises and in the immediate possession and control of the person arrested. P. 275 U. S. 198.

18 F.2d 218 affirmed.

Certiorari, 274 U.S. 727, to a judgment of the Circuit Court of Appeals affirming the conviction of Marron on a second trial for conspiracy to maintain a nuisance in violation of the Prohibition Act. See also 8 F.2d 251.

Page 275 U. S. 193