Page "Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution" Paragraph 4

The 1760s saw a growth in the intensity of litigation against state officers, who, using general warrants, conducted raids in search of materials relating to John Wilkes ' publications attacking both government policies and the King himself.

The most famous of these cases involved John Entick, whose home was forcibly entered by the King's Messenger Nathan Carrington, along with others, pursuant to a warrant issued by George Montagu-Dunk, 2nd Earl of Halifax authorizing them “ to make strict and diligent search for.

the author, or one concerned in the writing of several weekly very seditious papers intitled, ‘ The Monitor or British Freeholder, No 257, 357, 358, 360, 373, 376, 378, and 380 ,’″ and seized printed charts, pamphlets and other materials.

In the resulting case, Entick v. Carrington ( 1765 ), Charles Pratt, 1st Earl Camden ruled that the search and seizure was unlawful as the warrant authorized the seizure of all of Entick's papers, not just the criminal ones and the warrant lacked probable cause to even justify the search.

Entick established the English precedent that the executive is limited in intruding on private property by common law.