warrantless en · ADJ
Pronunciation
- /ˈwɒɹəntləs/ (UK)
Etymology
Etymology tree English warrant Proto-Indo-European *lewh₁- Proto-Indo-European *lewHs-der. Proto-Germanic *leusaną Proto-Germanic *lausaz Proto-Germanic *-lausaz Proto-West Germanic *-laus Old English -lēas Middle English -les English -less English warrantless From warrant + -less.
Meanings
-
(not-comparable) Of a search, arrest, etc. executed without a warrant.
In 1993 the CIA instituted an unwritten policy of conducting warrantless searches of entire buildings if random gunfire occurred in the area.
2001, Bernard E. Harcourt, Illusion of Order:Among the Democrats' examples of Gonzales' untruthfulness was his emphatic and repeated statement to the Judiciary Committee Tuesday that his dramatic nighttime visit to the bedside of Attorney General John Ashcroft in 2004 was not related to an internal administration dispute about the president's secret warrantless eavesdropping program.
2007 July 26, Brian Zick, “FBI Director Mueller Contradicts Gonzales”, in In These Times:"The breadth of this LPR system is spectacular and amounts to a warrantless search."
2023 July 24, Chris Eberhart, “NY police used AI to track drivers on highways as attorney questions legality”, in Fox News, archived from the original on 28 Aug 2023:Now, at the time, I was also a named plaintiff in a major lawsuit against the National Security Agency and the Department of Justice, petitioning the courts to put a halt to the warrantless wiretapping of American residents and citizens.
2010, Christopher Hitchens, Hitch-22, Atlantic, published 2010, page 255:
- (not-comparable, rare) Synonym of unwarranted.
Deriveds
warrantlessly · warrantless search · warrantlessness