Old Gambling Case Leads to Alabama Casino Raid

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (Associated Press) -- The state attorney general's office used a century-old gambling case to get a rare, but not unprecedented, search warrant to raid VictoryLand casino in Shorter.

Macon County Circuit Judge Tom Young initially refused to give the attorney general a search warrant. Attorney General Luther Strange appealed to the Alabama Supreme Court. He cited an 1899 case where a justice of the peace denied an arrest warrant based on an incorrect interpretation of the law, and the Supreme Court ordered it issued.

The current Supreme Court did the same thing for Strange. He used the warrant to have officers raid the casino Tuesday. The Supreme Court unsealed the records involving the search warrant after the raid was completed.