Hello and welcome to the political orphanage, a home for plucky misfits and problem solvers.

I'm your host, Andrew Heaton.

Here's the situation.

Cops think you are growing marijuana inside your house using grow lamps.

Because you are.

Now today, no one would care.

It'd just be a question of electric usage.

But this is 1991 when marijuana was still very much illegal and not the,

meh, it's technically illegal, but I don't really care kind of spot we've been in of late.

Very illegal.

You are growing marijuana, and the cops correctly suspect you are,

and they would very much like to arrest you and confiscate the drugs.

But they can't just stroll in. They are restrained by

the Fourth Amendment, which reads, 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.

The Constitution says that cops can't just enter your home on a hunch, or because you're

demographically the sort of person who probably would sell marijuana,

or just randomly enter houses until they find somebody with contraband.

If the cops want to enter your home and poke around, they have to show probable cause,

...