Michigan Dopers..Your rights in a search.

[Reeder]

Have been thrown out the door.

Two new laws, which took effect Monday as part of anti-terror efforts, also shield from public scrutiny the reasons for police searches.

Defense lawyers and civil libertarians are outraged at the laws, which make search warrants and supporting documents such as affidavits non-public records.

This is particularly chilling…

“An officer executing a search is not required to give a copy of the affidavit to the person or leave a copy at the place from which the property was taken.”

http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=3936063&BRD=982&PAG=461&dept_id=467992&rfi=6
Is this a good thing?

[Milossarian]

It’s my understanding that defendants and their attorneys have just as much right as ever to challenge a bad search.

What’s changed is the amount of information investigators will provide to the general public and press on search warrant affidavits.

The argument, the law enforcement officials say, is that the level of public information in an affidavit often causes them to tip their hand too quickly.

All of that I can buy. But the provision that doesn’t allow the person whose home is being searched to know the reasons why just is too big of an impingement upon individual rights. Even if it does often put law enforcement at a disadvantage in particular kinds of cases.

Here are the two parts of one of the laws, as written and without anyone’s spin:

link
link

And the other:
link