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, 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."

I don't have a ton to say about this one. I thought about bundling it with the Fifth. As we saw last week, amendments IV through VIII are all somewhat connected by their relation to the legal system. However, It makes more sense to put V and VI together, so I will probably do that.

It is worth remembering that the Bill of Rights was largely inspired by abuses under the British Crown. In the case of the Fourth Amendment, it was specifically a response to abuse of the writ of assistance, similar to a modern search warrant but too general, at least in application.

Therefore, as the law is supposed to function, our warrants need to be specific. There needs to be a cause, and a specification of what is being searched for, and it needs to be approved by a judge, whom we expect to be familiar with the law and sworn to upholding it. There is room for abuse, and it happens, but then search results can be excluded.

Ideally what this means to us is that we do not have to worry about having our lives disrupted and possessions disturbed. Theoretically it could make evidence planting and trumped up charges more difficult.

It is also a reason that the Patriot Act should never have been approved or extended. That's the main thing I have to say about that.