warrantless

From warrant +‎ -less.

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈwɒɹəntləs/

warrantless (not comparable)

1. (of a search, arrest, or the like) Performed without a warrant.
   • 2001, Bernard E. Harcourt, Illusion of Order:

     In 1993 the CIA instituted an unwritten policy of conducting warrantless searches of entire buildings if random gunfire occurred in the area.

   • 2007 July 26, Brian Zick, “FBI Director Mueller Contradicts Gonzales”, in In These Times:

     Among the Democrats' examples of Gonzales' untruthfulness was his emphatic and repeated statement to the Judiciary Committee Tuesday that his dramatic nighttime visit to the bedside of Attorney General John Ashcroft in 2004 was not related to an internal administration dispute about the president's secret warrantless eavesdropping program.

   • 2010, Christopher Hitchens, Hitch-22, Atlantic, published 2010, page 255:

     Now, at the time, I was also a named plaintiff in a major lawsuit against the National Security Agency and the Department of Justice, petitioning the courts to put a halt to the warrantless wiretapping of American residents and citizens.

   • 2023 July 24, Chris Eberhart, “NY police used AI to track drivers on highways as attorney questions legality”, in Fox News‎^[1]:

     "The breadth of this LPR system is spectacular and amounts to a warrantless search."

2. (rare) Synonym of unwarranted.