Cite as: 525 U. S. 234 (1999)
Thomas, J., concurring in judgment
We have previously suggested that the procedure for executing the common-law warrant for stolen goods "furnished the model for a 'reasonable' search under the Fourth Amendment." Id., at 116, n. 17. At common law, officers executing a warrant for stolen goods were required to furnish an inventory of property seized. T. Taylor, Two Studies in Constitutional Interpretation 82 (1969); see also 2 W. Hawkins, Pleas of the Crown 137 (6th ed. 1787) ("The officer executing such warrant, if required, shall shew the same to the person whose goods and chattels are distrained, and shall suffer a copy thereof to be taken"). Furthermore, the failure to adhere to this procedure was denounced in Wilkes v. Wood, Lofft 1, 98 Eng. Rep. 489 (K. B. 1763), and Entick v. Carrington, 19 How. St. Tr. 1029 (C. P. 1765), two celebrated cases that profoundly influenced the Founders' view of what a "reasonable" search entailed.2 In both cases, Lord Camden criticized the fact that the officers executing the general warrants were not constrained by the safeguards built up around the warrant for stolen goods. He specifically complained that the officers did not provide an inventory of the property seized.3
In light of this historical evidence, I would be open to considering, in an appropriate case, whether the Fourth Amend-2 See, e. g., T. Taylor, Two Studies in Constitutional Interpretation 39-41 (1969); Amar, Fourth Amendment First Principles, 107 Harv. L. Rev. 757, 775 (1994); Stuntz, Substantive Origins of Criminal Procedure, 105 Yale L. J. 393, 400 (1995).
3 See Entick, 19 How. St. Tr., at 1067 ("[T]he same law which has with so much circumspection guarded the case of stolen goods from mischief, would likewise in this case protect the subject, by adding proper checks; . . . would require him to take an exact inventory, and deliver a copy . . . . [W]ant of [these safeguards] is an undeniable argument against the legality of the thing"); Wilkes, Lofft, at 19, 98 Eng. Rep., at 499 ("As to the proof of what papers were taken away, the plaintiff could have no account of them; and those who were able to have given an account . . . have produced none").
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