American histories without exception list the problem of writs of assistance as one the main causes of the American Revolution. Such writs were issued by the superior court. They were first granted to Thomas Paxton, chief customs officer in the province (Massachusetts) in 1755; other writs similar in form were issued to other customs officers by the same court in 1758, 1759, and 1760. There was popular objection to them, not merely in Massachusetts but in practically all the colonies. The reaction was too widespread and too deep to be explained by local happenings in a single colony or by the single forensic effort of any local politician.
Writs of assistance were legalized by a series of acts of Parliament giving the customs officers authority to search for and seize uncustomized goods. They were supplemented by customary practices which became as much a part of the legal procedure as the law itself. The law alone was extended to America in 1767 when the colonial courts had before them no direct knowledge of the practices that had grown up in the British Court of Exchequer.
The power to search came from the authority given to the customs officers, and in practice this power was expressly stated in their commissions. The exercise of the power was directly limited in that it had to be done in the presence of a court officer. The law specifically empowered the customs officers to undertake the search. However, a writ of assistance was not a search warrant. It merely vouched for the identity of the customs officers who by their commissions were authorized to search. The local officers were directed to assist the customs officer, as they had the power to command the peace and maintain order which the customs officers did not have.
Of all the colonies, Virginia was the one where the issue over writs of assistance was most stubbornly fought. The general warrants and unreasonable searches were first condemned by...