United States (252 Fed.. 418). the Circuit Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit said : " No search warrant shall be issued unless the judge has first been furnished with facts under oathnot suspicions. beliefs. or surmisesbut facts which. when the law is properly applied to them. tend to establish the necessary legal conclusion. or facts which. when the law Is properly applied to them. tend to establish probable cause for believing that the legal conclusion Is right. * * * If the sworn accusation is based on fiction. the accuser must take the chance of punishment for perjury. Hence the necessity of a sworn statement of facts. because one can not be convicted of perjury for having a belief. though the belief be utterly unfounded In fact and law." But why dissimulate? The things seized were taken not because they were " the means of committing a felony " . they were taken that they might be used as evidence of membership in and of the teachings of the Communist Party or the Communist Labor Party. with a view to securing orders of deportation. Commendable candor would compel a frank admission to that effect. in view of the instructions given to those suing them out. to search the meeting places and residences of the officers of either of the parties named for "literature membership cards. records. and correspondence." The very same paragraph continues : "All literature. books. papers. and anything hanging on the walls should be gathered up. the ceilings and partitions should be sounded for hiding places. After obtaining any documentary evidence the same should be wrapped up in packages and marked thereon the location of the place and the names of the persons obtaining the evidence and the contents of each package." There is room for the contention. though it would be a strained contention. that circulars or pamphlets intended to arouse individuals to overthrow the Government by force or violence are things " used " or at least to be used "In the commission of a felony." But what can one say in justification on such a ground of the seizure of membership cards. financial records. "all literature. books. papers. and anything hanging on the walls "?
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deportation