That summary is not quite in line with what the warrants were used for and ignores the context... Britain was at war with the West Indies and created new import

That summary is not quite in line with what the warrants were used for and ignores the context... Britain was at war with the West Indies and created new import taxes to help finance it as well as economically damage their enemy, but traders at ports such as Boston continuously traded illegally (smuggled) with the enemy, thus avoiding the needed foreign-import taxes and sustaining the enemy's well-being. Writs of assistance were authorized by the Massachusetts governor to allow customs officers to generally search ships or buildings that they suspected contained smuggled goods (and demand the assistance of local authorities), and this was pretty effective at stopping the smugglers. Naturally, the Boston merchants didn't like being deprived of their tax-free profits on the black market, so they sued: http://revolutionaryboston.wikia.com/wiki/Petition_of_Lechmere http://revolutionaryboston.wikia.com/wiki/Petition_of_Lechme... And lost, as generalized warrants, though falling out of favor, were not without precedent. (There's actually a whole book on this: http://books.google.com/books?id=pBBBwSTwdrEC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false http://books.google.com/books?id=pBBBwSTwdrEC&printsec=front...)