Search Warrant

A single-sheet court document on official letterhead: stiff, slightly glossy paper stamped with a court seal, bearing a judge’s signature, case number and an attached affidavit. Officers present it upright at a doorway as physical authorization for entry — the paper’s edges cut through conversation and quicken the room. In the present material the warrant is the instrument used by Inspector Javert to launch a drug search; characters react to it with a mix of legal deference and political alarm as the document converts procedural action into the seed of controversy.