Trump officials believe law used to speed up deportations will also allow warrantless searches

Conservative originalists throughout the judiciary have spent decades trying to divine what the Founding Fathers would think about a given law using little beyond vibes and a Ouija board conveniently located behind their eyes.

When it comes to topics on which the Constitution drafters' thoughts are known, like say the right to go about your business without being searched by agents of the state, suddenly the arbiters of cutting-edge 18th-century thought are willing to grant a little leeway.

That's the takeaway from a recent report by the New York Times, which found that lawyers in  President Donald Trump's Department of Justice believe federal agents are allowed to enter homes without a warrant under the recently invoked Alien Enemies Act of 1798.

Trump has declared undocumented immigrants a "foreign invasion" under the act, granting himself extensive wartime powers in the process. The use of the act to speed deportations has already been blocked by federal courts, though the Trump administration has reveled in finding ways to not comply with orders.

It is not clear whether the Trump administration's rationale around warrantless searches extends to all agencies or merely those focusing on immigration. The Fourth Amendment protects all people in the United States from unreasonable searches and seizures and generally requires authorities to request a warrant from a judge to enter into a home or business. 

Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents have been known to use administrative warrants to muddy the waters around Fourth Amendment protections. These warrants, which request the removal of an individual due to civil violations, are not reviewed by a judge and do not grant agents the right to enter a home. If the Trump administration gets its way, even that flimsy protection will be moot. 

To be clear, the Trump administration has given no indication that it plans to do away with warrants entirely. With actions like the arrest of Mahmoud Khalil for his pro-Palestinian activism, however, Trump's Department of Justice has shown a frightening willingness to toss aside constitutional protections in service of the president's revenge agenda.