Season 2, Episode 34 (Show 86): Search-A-Lago

August 17, 2022

Perhaps inevitably, Mar-A-Lago has been searched, and apparently blockbuster papers have been seized.  Our analysis will challenge everything you thought you knew about the Fourth Amendment.

CLE credit is available after listening to this episode by visiting podcast.njsba.com.

Ex-President Trump’s residence – or is it his club? – of Mar-A-Lago was searched, and US government papers seized, pursuant to a search warrant which has since been made public.  Warrants, papers, searches, seizures – all words found in the Fourth Amendment.  We take the opportunity to upend what every American thinks they understand: that searches require warrants, that probable cause is a must, that failure to heed these dictates means the fruits of the search will be suppressed.  Professor Amar presents an entirely different way of thinking about the 4th Amendment, and when he is done, you will wonder how you ever thought about it any other way.  Armed with this understanding, we then turn to Palm Beach and assess the Justice Department’s actions in this light.