LAW: THE SUPREME COURT SAYS AUTHORITIES ARE UNDER NO OBLIGATIONS TO TELL
THEM HOW TO GET THEIR BELONGINGS.

Washington_Police don't have to tell people how to get back their property
when it is seized under a search warrant, the Supreme Court ruled Wednesday.

People can find that out on their own from public sources, the court said.
The justices unanimously threw out a California couple's lawsuit over the
difficulty they had recovering cash taken by police during a search of
their home.

Writing for the court, Justice Anthony M. Kennedy said that when police
seize property under a search warrant, due process requires them to give
notice that the property was taken. Otherwise, the property's owner might
not know who took it, he said.

But Kennedy added, "Once the property owner is informed that his property
ha been seized, he can turn to ... public sources to learn about the
remedial procedures" for recovering the property later.

Lawrence and Clara Perkins' home was searched by police in West Covina in
May 1993. The couple had rented a room to a man linked to a shooting death
elsewhere in the town.

Among the items seized from the house was $2,469 in cash belonging to the
Perkinses.

No one was at home when the house was searched, but police left a note
saying they conducted the search under a court warrant. The note included a
list of the items seized and contained a phone number to obtain further
information.

Lawrence Perkins called the number and was told he needed a court order to
get the money returned. Later, he was told there was nothing at the
municipal courthouse under his name and that he needed a case number or
search warrant number. No city employee told him how to find those numbers.

The Perkinses sued the city in 1993, saying the search violated their
constitutional rights. The city returned the cash in mid-1994.

A federal judge ruled for the city, but the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of
Appeals said the city violated Perkins' constitutional rights by giving
inadequate notice on how to recover the cash.

The Supreme Court said the appeals court was wrong.

Kennedy's opinion was joined by Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist and
Justices John Paul Stevens, Sandra Day O'Connor, David H. Souter, Ruth
Bader Ginsburg and Stephen G. Breyer.

Justice Clarence Thomas, writing for himself and Justice Antonin Scalia,
agreed with the result.