Checks and balances on search of Trump's Mar-a-Lago home and resort display limited government at its best

Among the principles of enforcing the law at stake in the Mar-a-Lago search is this: anyone who violates the law, including a former president, is within its reach

Laurence H. Tribe is the Carl M. Loeb University Professor of Constitutional Law Emeritus at Harvard University.

In that spirit, whatever our political orientation, each of us should apply a critical mindset to all the powers at play in the FBI search of Mar-a-Lago. 

On one side are current government officials. Safeguarding liberty calls for skepticism toward every exercise of power. That is exactly what Judge Bruce Reinhart displayed in last Thursday’s hearing on releasing the Mar-a-Lago search warrant affidavit. He did not uncritically accept the government’s position that nothing could be disclosed. Rather, he ordered it to submit a redacted copy of the affidavit so he could decide for himself what could safely be released.