Warrants Required

Politically dry as dry can be is Nebraska where every aid is given to the enforcement of Prohibition. Startling was last week's news that U. S. District Judge Joseph William Woodrough at Omaha had placed a large and. to Nebraska, alien obstacle in the path of U. S. dry agents by his ruling that they cannot legally search a domicile without warrant even though they see, hear and smell material evidence.

Federal agents, peering through a window of a private house from a back alley, saw steam rising from copper coils, heard the roar of a boiler fire, smelled the sour odor of cooking mash. Although they did not see the moonshiners at work, they broke into the house without warrant, seized the aromatic mash, the steaming still, two men.

Judge Woodrough found the two distillers not guilty. He opined that the agents could enter a house without warrant only if they actually saw the felons at work. Said he: "The entry into the dwelling house and the search of it were unjustifiable and illegal . . . therefore I have ordered the evidence found to be suppressed."

Said Federal District Attorney James C Kinsler, who prosecuted the case: "The ruling is revolutionary and will be quoted throughout the country in every case based on a raid without a warrant. It is equivalent to saying that an officer cannot break into a house without a warrant even if he can see or hear a felony or even a murder being committed."

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.