THE FOURTH AMMENDMENT The Fourth Amendment, protects people from unreasonable searches and seizures by the government. It is the basis for the establishment of an individual's right to privacy. It does not prohibit searches and seizures. It instead prevents those that would be unreasonable. In order to be lawful, a warrant must be judicially sanctioned. Probable cause must be attested to in the acquisition of a warrant to perform the search and/or seizure. And, the warrant must be limited in scope in accordance with the supporting evidence provided in the attestation. The Fourth Amendment is only applicable to government actors and criminal law. The intent of the Fourth Amendment was to create a constitutional buffer between the people and the intimidating power of the government. There are three components of the Fourth Amendment. First, it establishes the privacy aspect by recognizing that U.S. Citizens have a right to be “secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects.” This privacy interest is protected by prohibiting any searches and seizures that are “unreasonable” or have not been authorized by a warrant that is based upon probable cause. And, “the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized” must be described with particularity before it is issued to a law enforcement officer. The Fourth Amendment was drafted because of British officials' discretion in collection of taxes for the Crown was often going unchecked. Simple suspicion by the tax collectors or informants compelled magistrates to issue general warrants. There was no lawful requirement of the magistrates to question the British officials as to the source of their suspicion. The general warrants allowed for the blanket house to house... ... middle of paper ... ...aws and the widely differing court decisions creates a difficult situation to protect society from those that seek to do us great harm, as individuals and as a nation, while at the same time applying the fundamental principles of freedom from oppression and tyranny that the framers of the Constitution had envisioned in their drafting of it. Ultimately it comes to the determination of that which is considered to be “reasonable”. Some will assert that it is reasonable to relinquish some degree of our liberty to ensure safety. We must surely be cautious as to how we reveal the criminals amongst us. But they must be revealed. And the criminal will continue to endeavor to undermine those attempts to be revealed and apprehended through the utilization of emerging technologies. The very same technologies that are utilized lawfully by society. Therein lies the conundrum.
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Show MoreThe 4th Amendment is the right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects,
To summarize the Fourth Amendment, it protects people from unreasonable searches and seizures. A search conducted by the government exists when the area or person being searched would reasonably have an expectation of privacy. A seizure takes place when the government takes a person or property into custody based on belief a criminal law was violated. If a search or seizure is deemed unreasonable, than any evidence obtained during that search and seizure can be omitted from court under
The 4th amendment provides citizens protections from unreasonable searches and seizures from law enforcement. Search and seizure cases are governed by the 4th amendment and case law. The United States Supreme Court has crafted exceptions to the 4th amendment where law enforcement would ordinarily need to get a warrant to conduct a search. One of the exceptions to the warrant requirement falls under vehicle stops. Law enforcement can search a vehicle incident to an individual’s arrest if the individual unsecured by the police and is in reaching distance of the passenger compartment. Disjunctive to the first exception a warrantless search can be conducted if there is reasonable belief
According to the Fourth Amendment, “The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated.” Without the Fourth Amendment, people would have no rights over their own personal privacy. Police officers could just enter people’s houses and take anything that they could use as evidence and use it against them. With the advancement in today’s technology, it is getting more and more difficult to define what exactly privacy is to us, and whether or not the Fourth Amendment protects it.
The 4th amendment protects US citizens from unreasonable searches and seizures by the government. If it is violated by the government, all evidence found by the unlawful search and seizure must be excluded as per the exclusionary rule which serves as a remedy for 4th amendment violations. Before a remedy can be given for violation of the 4th amendment, a court must determine whether the 4th amendment is applicable to a certain case.
“The Fourth Amendment wasn't written for people with nothing to hide any more than the First Amendment was written for people with nothing to say.” (Dave Krueger). The Fourth Amendment protects the people's values, including the right of privacy. The Fourth Amendment includes, “The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, paper, effects, against unreasonable searches and seizure, shall not be violated.” When the founding fathers created the Constitution they ensured the people fundamental laws that would be used to any issue portrayed in the Supreme Court. That gave the people a relief that no one is ever above the law that is created. The privacy of the people was a very big value enforced by warrants. In the case of the
The Constitution of the United States of America protects people’s rights because it limits the power of government against its people. Those rights guaranteed in the Constitution are better known as the Bill of Rights. Within these rights, the Fourth Amendment protects “the right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects against unreasonable search and seizures […]” (Knetzger & Muraski, 2008). According to the Fourth Amendment, a search warrant must be issued before a search and seizure takes place. However, consent for lawful search is one of the most common exceptions to the search warrant requirement.
The amendment that raises my own eye is the Search and Seizures Clause of the Fourth Amendment. Like most of the Bill of Rights, the Fourth Amendment has its origins in 17th and 18th century, English common law. Unlike the rest of the Bill of Rights, the Fourth Amendment's origins can be traced precisely it arose out of a strong public reaction to three cases from the 1760s, two decided in England and one in the colonies. Two cases from England, “Entick vs. Carrington” and “Wilkes vs. Wood”, involved plaintiffs who produced pamphlets criticizing the government. During the arresting, officials seized books and papers from the plaintiff’s property. A court agreed that the officers’ actions constituted trespassing. The third case occurred within the colonies and involved “writs of assistance,” which permitted officials to search for smuggled goods without specify which house or what goods.
The Fourth Amendment provides people with the right “to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures.” Courts have long recognized that the Forth Amendment protected individuals from unjustified police intrusions into one’s person, home, car, or other possessions, but few practical protection mechanisms existed. To preserve these constitutional guarantees, the Supreme Court established standards by which police officers must abide. One such protection has been the probable cause — a belief that the person committed, is committing, or is about to commit a crime. In order to uphold an arrest or seizure, courts have required a probable cause combined with either a warrant or circumstances
The Fourth Amendment provides protection against unlawful warrants, searches and/or seizures with insufficient evidence, and what will constitute the terms of a warrant. The Fourth Amendment is based on three main principles. The first principle is that the authorities must have sufficient evidence as to why they believe the desired piece of evidence would be located in the area. For example, if the authorities were in search of a murder weapon they must have sufficient forensic evidence that would provide enough support that the weapon would be located at the specific spot. The second principle is that when searching an individual’s private home the reason should be focused on evidence to support the search. For instance, if the cops were to search the home of an individual accused of a crime any types of writings or plans that may be present in the home may be confiscated if they are deemed necessary in support of the search. The final principle is that a blanket warrant must not be used as a method of bypassing the first two principles. For example, if the authorities could not solve what kind of weapon was used or where the evidence would be located they cannot have a warrant that covers any possible scenarios in a broad range. The original notion of the Fourth Amendment was to enforce the belief that “each man’s home is his castle”
The Fourth Amendment of the United States Constitution guarantees an individual’s protection against unlawful searches and seizures by law enforcement by providing that a search warrant with specific detailing information, based on “good faith” and probable cause, must be provided prior to investigation. By doing so, an individual may be secure that “his home is his castle” and his “person, papers, and effects” (The Constitution of the United States, Amendment 4) is protected as well.
In the late 1700's the 4th Amendment was written because of strong objections to the Writs of Assistance or general warrants. The Writs Assistance gave officials the right to enter any home and seize belongings without a reasonable cause. (Grolier Encyclopedia) The 4th amendment was ratified in the Bill of Rights on December 15, 1771. This amendment protects the people's right to privacy and security. (Encarta Online)
This amendment was fairly easy to add to the constitution, because most of the state constitutions had already install the amendment to their own (Wood). It was one of the short addressed problem other than the rights of protecting private property and quarters for soldiers during a war situation. The only argument against was by Anti-Federalist who wanted the ban of quartering completely. This argument was never acted on once the Bill of Rights was agreed on by the delegates (Morriss).
A-58). It also requires “a warrant that specifically describes the place to be searched, the person involved, and suspicious things to be seized” (Goldfield et al. A- 58). The Fourth Amendment protects the privacy of the people by preventing public officials from searching homes or personal belonging without reason. It also determines whether “someone 's privacy is diminished by a governmental search or seizure” (Heritage). This amendment protects citizens from having evidence which was seized illegally “used against the one whose privacy was invaded” (Heritage). This gives police incentive to abide by the Fourth Amendment. The Fourth Amendment protects a person’s privacy “only when a person has a legitimate expectation to privacy” (FindLaw). This means the police cannot search person’s home, briefcase, or purse. The Fourth Amendment also requires there to be certain requirements before a warrant can be issued. The Fourth Amendment requires a warrant “when the police search a home or an office, unless the search must happen immediately, and there is no opportunity to obtain a warrant” (Heritage). The Fourth Amendment protects the privacy of the people, but also the safety of the people. When there is probable cause, a government official can destroy property or subdue a suspect. The Fourth Amendment prevents government officials from harassing the public.
The purpose for the Fourth Amendment is to protect people from intrusion of the government in areas where they have a reasonable expectation of privacy. It prohibits searches and seizures unless they are conducted with probable cause and under reasonable circumstances. “The Fourth Amendment only protects against searches and seizures conducted by the government or pursuant to governmental direction. Surveillance and investigatory actions taken by strictly private persons, such as private investigators, suspicious spouses, or nosey neighbors, are not governed by the Fourth Amendment” (Criminal.Findlaw.com, 2013).