The Return of the General Warrant.

The article examines the modern police practice of conducting pretextual stops on the motoring public in the U.S. to initiate criminal investigations without reasonable suspicion or prior judicial approval. Topics include a comparison of this practice to Great Britain's use of general writs of assistance during colonial times, an account of the author's own experience with being profiled by the police and the significance of the debate over writs of assistance in Paxton Fourth Amendment case.