The Fourth Amendment and Search and Seizure

The Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution is the part of the Bill of Rights guarding against unreasonable searches and seizures.

Learning Objective

Describe the the historical circumstances that generated the Fourth Amendment and the protections the Amendment affords

Key Points

The Fourth Amendment (Amendment IV) to the United States Constitution is the part of the Bill of Rights guarding against unreasonable searches and seizures, as well as requiring any warrant to be judicially sanctioned and supported by probable cause.
Police officers are not required to advise a suspect that he/she may refuse a search. There are also some circumstances in which a third party who has equal control, or common authority, over the property may consent to a search.
When an individual does not possess a reasonable expectation of privacy that society is willing to acknowledge in a particular piece of property, any interference by the government with regard to that property is not considered a search subject to 4th Amendment, and a warrant is never required.

Terms

searches and seizures
A legal procedure used in many civil law and common law legal systems whereby police or other authorities and their agents, who suspect that a crime has been committed, conduct a search of a person's property and confiscate any relevant evidence to the crime.
Bill of Rights
The collective name for the first ten amendments to the United States Constitution.

Example

In the 1946 case of Oklahoma Press Pub. Co. v. Walling, there was a distinction made between a "figurative or constructive search" and an actual search and seizure. The court held that constructive searches are limited by the Fourth Amendment, while actual searches and seizures require a warrant based on "probable cause." In the case of a constructive search in which the records and papers sought are of corporate character, the court held that the Fourth Amendment does not apply, since corporations are not entitled to all the constitutional protections of rights created for private individuals.

Full Text

Background

The Fourth Amendment (Amendment IV) to the United States Constitution is the part of the Bill of Rights ([fig:9477]]) guarding against unreasonable searches and seizures, as well as requiring any warrant to be judicially sanctioned and supported by probable cause. It was adopted as a response to the abuse of the writ of assistance (a type of general search warrant) in the American Revolution. The amendment also states that a search or seizure should be limited in scope according to specific information supplied by law enforcement to the issuing court. The Fourth Amendment applies to the states by way of the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.

The text of the Fourth Amendment states the following: "The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized. "

For instance, the owner of the property in question may consent to the search. The consent must be voluntary, but there is no clear method of determining this; rather, a court will consider the "totality of the circumstances" in assessing whether consent was voluntary. Police officers are not required to advise a suspect that he/she may refuse the search. There are also some circumstances in which a third party who has equal control, or common authority, over the property may consent to a search.

When an individual does not possess a "reasonable expectation of privacy" that society is willing to acknowledge in a particular piece of property, any interference by the government with regard to that property is not considered a search subject to the Fourth Amendment, and a warrant is never required. For example, courts have found that a person does not possess a reasonable expectation of privacy in information transferred to a third party, such as writing on the outside of an envelope sent through the mail or left for pick-up in an area where others might view it. While that does not mean that the person has no reasonable expectation of privacy in the contents of that envelope, courts have held that one does not possess a reasonable expectation of privacy that society is willing to acknowledge in the contents of garbage left outside the curtilage of a home.

Bill of Rights

175th anniversary of the Bill of Rights commemorated on 1966 US postage stamp Plate block of four.

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