Can ICE Enter a Home To Make an Arrest With Only an Administrative Warrant?

Orin Kerr · 22 Jan 2026

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An administrative warrant is not a warrant at all: it records an officer's own hunch instead of a judge's independent finding.

Their wordsGiven the focus in Coolidge, Shadwick, and Payton on the fundamental role of warrants in inserting a judicial check on the executive, it seems out of place to say that this can be satisfied by the executive checking itself.

Also said by Radley Balko

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Our reading
An administrative warrant is not a warrant at all: it records an officer's own hunch instead of a judge's independent finding.

Their wordsGiven the focus in Coolidge, Shadwick, and Payton on the fundamental role of warrants in inserting a judicial check on the executive, it seems out of place to say that this can be satisfied by the executive checking itself.
Our reading
A federal officer can violate the Fourth Amendment and the victim still have no way to sue, because the Bivens remedy has been cut back to almost nothing.

Their wordsEven if the policy is unconstitutional, as it seems to be, a person who is illegally searched probably can't sue ICE for violating their constitutional rights.
Our reading
The original remedy for an unlawful government entry was an ordinary trespass suit against the officer, and losing it took the teeth out of the Fourth Amendment.

Their wordsBack when the Fourth Amendment was enacted, the most fundamental remedy for an unlawful government entry into your home was a civil suit for trespass against the officers.

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The other pieces are the ones whose claims are worded most like this one's. That measures language, not agreement: they may argue the opposite.