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spread out along the interstate and waited for Davis Then the Tudors assumed the throne in 1485,
to arrive. The officers stopped the car, searched it, and “the English law of search and seizure
and discovered the meth. Then they arrested Davis underwent a radical transformation.” The targeted
and Beaudion and recovered Davis’s phone from investigations of prior centuries became general
her purse. The United States charged Beaudion searches of sweeping scope. These searches were
with conspiracy to possess with the intent to authorized by general warrants that commanded
distribute methamphetamine in violation of 21 their enforcers “to search the houses, out-houses,
U.S.C. §§ 841(a)(1) and 846. Beaudion moved to or other places of any person . . . as upon good
suppress the drugs and other evidence on the theory ground shall be suspected,” to quote just one
that the warrant authorizing the GPS tracking was example. Thus, the hue and cry morphed from
defective. A magistrate judge recommended targeted searches for identified felons into “private
denying the motion for lack of Fourth Amendment search[es] . . . in every Town” of “all suspected
standing, and the district court adopted that houses and places.” Customs officials received
recommendation. The district court held in the authorization to search not only ships but also any
alternative that Beaudion’s warrant-related “shop, warehouse, or other place or places
arguments did not entitle him to relief. Beaudion whatsoever which they . . . shall think good within
entered a conditional guilty plea. The district court this realm.” And the Crown expanded guild
gave him a Guidelines sentence. Beaudion timely searches beyond guild members and their
appealed his conviction and sentence by competitors to civilians outside the regulated
challenging the denial of his motion to suppress. profession. The Crown also used general warrants
Beaudion argues that Heckard violated the and searches to regulate vagrancy, recreation,
Fourth Amendment by obtaining Davis’s GPS apparel, hunting, weapons, and social unrest.
coordinates via a defective warrant. We therefore Some objected that such searches were
begin with the original public meaning of the unlawful and “unreasonable.” Importantly, the
Amendment. objectors framed their arguments in terms of
The Fourth Amendment protects “[t]he right of individual rights. Sir Edward Coke, for example,
the people to be secure in their persons, houses, argued that general searches violated Magna
papers, and effects[] against unreasonable searches Carta’s individualized promise that “[n]o free man
and seizures.” U.S. Const. amend. IV. English shall be taken or imprisoned or dispossessed, . . .
search-andseizure practices inform the original nor will we go upon him, nor send upon him,
public meaning of this text. except by the legal judgment of his peers or by the
For a long time, searches and seizures in law of the land.”
England were relatively limited. Private parties Violations of personal rights necessitated
who witnessed a felony could chase the perpetrator personal remedies. And tort liability soon
during the “hue and cry,” but they rarely went expanded to reach offending officers as well.
house-to-house looking for unidentified suspects. Indeed, many of the canonical English search-and-
Customs officials could search ships for counterfeit seizure cases—whose “propositions were in the
currency and smuggled goods, but they rarely minds of those who framed the [F]ourth
ventured onto land. And guild officers could [A]mendment”—involved trespass suits against
inspect merchandise for quality-control purposes, officers who authorized and executed general
but they rarely investigated people outside their warrants.
professions. Given the limited frequency and scope Both the posture and pronouncements of those
of these searches, they generated “little protest.” cases reflect the common-law understanding that

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