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from trespass lawsuits such as the one brought by Entick.

The presiding judge, Lord Camden, found the warrant to

have no legal validity whatsoever:

If this point should be decided in favour of the

jurisdiction, the secret cabinets and bureaus of

every subject in this kingdom will be thrown

open to the search and inspection of a messen-

ger, whenever the secretary of state shall think

fit to charge, or even to suspect, a person to

be the author, printer, or publisher of a sedi-

tious libel. . . . This power, so claimed by the

secretary of state, is not supported by one sin-

gle citation from any law book extant. . . . I

cannot be persuaded that such a power can be

justified by the common law.20

As news of that ruling spread, Lord Camden was hailed

on both sides of the Atlantic for his bold and clear-eyed

expression of the common law and the rights of Englishmen.

The judge was so revered in America that many towns and

cities were named after him (e.g., Camden, New Jersey;

Camden, Maine; Camden, South Carolina).21  The Baltimore

Orioles' baseball stadium is called Camden Yards, but few

sports fans know that the site on which the stadium stands

was named for the great English judge who stood for liber-

ty and against tyranny.

There is an important footnote to the historic ruling

of Entick v. Carrington.  Although Lord Camden declared

the executive warrant that had been issued by the secre-

tary of state to be null and void, he conceded that such a

warrant-issuing procedure--however odious its tendencies--

could be authorized by an act of Parliament.  Parliament

could, after all, override the common law whenever it

wished.  Entick prevailed in his case because Secretary of

State Halifax had simply assumed the power to issue search

warrants without any prior authorization from Parliament.

The concession noted by Lord Camden was acknowledged by

all to be a correct exposition of English law.  But the

American patriots who were fighting against the writs of

assistance viewed that concession with alarm: it was a

dangerous loophole that could be exploited by Parliament.

Americans "Constitutionalize" Common-Law Principles

When the American revolutionaries sat down to draw up

their plans for a new government, they were keenly aware

of the shortcomings of the British Constitution.  While

they clearly admired the protections of the common law,