The Importance Of The Fourth Amendment In Katz V. United States

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“No right is held more sacred, or is more carefully guarded . . . than the right of every individual to the possession and control of his own person, free from all restraint or interference of others, unless by clear and unquestionable authority of law.” The Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution guarantees the right of people to be free from “unreasonable searches and seizures.” This generally requires law enforcement officers to get a warrant from a judge or magistrate before searching or seizing an individual – but there are many exceptions to this rule. While it is impossible to define exactly what constitutes a search in every scenario, the Court laid out an important test for what is protected under the Fourth Amendment in Katz v. United States. For the purposes of this article, the relevant point is that government collection of a sample of a suspect’s blood, breath, or urine for the purpose of testing for the presence of alcohol or drugs always constitutes a search for Fourth Amendment purposes. …show more content…

This rule was created by the Court to deter the executive branch (police and other law enforcement agencies specifically) from future Fourth Amendment violations. This is a vital enforcement mechanism, because police officer’s jobs would be unquestionably easier if they did not have to comply with the Fourth Amendment prohibition against unreasonable searches. Further, the judiciary has no power to sanction the executive branch directly for violations of the Fourth Amendment because of the separation of powers. Thus, if the Court is to enforce Fourth Amendment rights, it can only do so indirectly after a violation has

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