United States v. Donald Ray Scott

How courts have described this case

Verbatim parenthetical descriptions written by other courts when citing this decision. Ranked by citation-network relevance.

• holding a warrant to be invalid when issued by a retired state judge lacking the legal authority necessary to issue search warrants
• describing de facto officer doctrine as a “salutary rule that while one is in public office, exercising the authority thereof under color of law, we cannot, except in a direct proceeding to test his right to office, pass upon the question here raised[.]”
• good-faith exception cannot cure a constitutional violation because the warrant issued by a retired judge was void ab initio
• search warrant signed by a retired state judge “wholly without legal authority to issue a warrant” under state law was void ab initio
• “[W]hen a warrant is signed by someone who lacks the legal authority necessary to issue search warrants, the warrant is void ab initio.”
• search warrant signed by a retired state judge “wholly without legal authority to issue a warrant” under state law was void ab initio

Source: CourtListener parenthetical corpus (CC0).