2. The SCA’s Use of the Term of Art “Warrant”
Congress’s use of the term of art “warrant” also emphasizes the domestic
boundaries of the Act in these circumstances.
In construing statutes, we interpret a legal term of art in accordance with the
term’s traditional legal meaning, unless the statute contains a persuasive indication that
Congress intended otherwise. See F.A.A. v. Cooper, 132 S. Ct. 1441, 1449 (2012) (“[W]hen
Congress employs a term of art, ‘it presumably knows and adopts the cluster of ideas
that were attached to each borrowed word in the body of learning from which it was
taken.’”) (quoting Molzof v. United States, 502 U.S. 301, 307 (1992)). “Warrant” is such a
term of art.
The term is endowed with a legal lineage that is centuries old. The importance of
the warrant as an instrument by which the power of government is exercised and
constrained is reflected by its prominent appearance in the Fourth Amendment to the
United States Constitution:
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses,
papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures,
shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon
probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and
particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons
or things to be seized.
U.S. Const. amend. IV. It is often observed that “[t]he chief evil that prompted the
framing and adoption of the Fourth Amendment was the indiscriminate searches and
seizures conducted by the British under the authority of general warrants.” United
States v. Galpin, 720 F.3d 436, 445 (2d Cir. 2013) (internal quotation marks omitted).
Warrants issued in accordance with the Fourth Amendment thus identify discrete
objects and places, and restrict the government’s ability to act beyond the warrant’s
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