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of law, doubtless prompted by the desire to
bring further proof to the aid of the Govern-
ment, and under color of his office undertook to
make a seizure of private papers in direct vio-
lation of the constitutional prohibition against
such action. . . . To sanction such [methods of
evidence gathering] would be to affirm by judi-
cial decision a manifest neglect if not an open
defiance of the prohibitions of the Constitution,
intended for the protection of the people against
such unauthorized action.59
The Weeks precedent makes sense. The Fourth
Amendment manifests a preference for a procedure of
antecedent justification that the police must follow before
they can invade American homes or businesses. The exclu-
sionary rule is a logical and necessary corollary to the
principle of antecedent justification. Enforcement of the
rule puts executive branch agents in the position they
would have been in had there been no violation of the war-
rant clause. Thus, the exclusionary rule restores the
equilibrium that the Fourth Amendment established.
The exclusionary rule is also appropriate where execu-
tive branch agents obtain a search warrant but then disre-
gard its terms and conditions. Such misconduct is more
common than many people think. In 1994, for example, a
state judge in Oklahoma issued a warrant that authorized a
search of the residence of one Albert Foster. Consistent
with the particularity requirement of the Fourth Amendment,
the warrant specifically identified the items to be
searched for and seized--four firearms (one Remington shot-
gun, one Taurus .38 special, and two 22-caliber Rugar car-
bines) and any marijuana they might find. But the offi-
cers executing the search seized the following items:
several VCR machines, miscellaneous video equip-
ment, a socket set, two bows and a sheath con-
taining six arrows, a pair of green coveralls, a
riding lawn mower, three garden tillers, a brown
leather pouch containing miscellaneous gun
shells, a holster, several stereo systems, a CB
radio base station, two soft tip microphones,
several televisions with remote controls, a
Dewalt heavy duty drill, a Vivitar camera tripod,
a Red Rider BB-gun Daisy model, a Corona Machete
in brown leather case, an ASAHI Pentex Spotmatic
Camera, a Bowie type knife in black sheath, a
Yashica camera MAT-124, a black leather bag with
tapes, a metal rod, a Westinghouse clock radio,