The Fourth Amendment

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Introduction

The Fourth Amendment refers to the provision by the United States Constitution which safeguards personal privacy and the right of every citizen to be free from unnecessary and unreasonable intrusion into the home, businesses, and property in the form of police stops of civilians on the street, searches of homes and arrests. Notably, the courts and lawmakers have devised and put safeguards that ensure that law enforcement officers only interfere with the citizen’s fourth amendment rights only through specific methods and through specific methods. Over the last few years, the Fourth Amendment has been debated widely as intelligence, and police agencies have engaged in many controversial activities (Baude, & Stern, 2015). As part of the war on terror, the federal government has collected many internet connections and telephone numbers. Municipal police forces have used ‘stop and frisk’ aggressively. There have also been police-citizen encounters that have been highly publicized in which police ended up shooting unarmed civilians. The purpose of this text is to understand various aspects of the Fourth Amendment including, who it protects, its application, electronic device use, and the next cause of action for a person if their rights are violated.

Who the Fourth Amendment Protects

Within the realm of criminal law, ‘search and seizure’ protections of the Fourth Amendment extend to two scenarios. This provision protects an officer’s of the law seizure or physical apprehension of a citizen by way of arresting or stopping them and searches conducted by the police on items and places whereby a citizen has expressed legitimate expectations regarding privacy. The latter has to do with a person’s privacy expectations on their luggage, clothing, purse, apartment, house, place of business, and hotel rooms. The Fourth Amendment plays a crucial role in safeguarding the citizens during detentions and searches. Worth noting, the fourth amendment prevents the unlawful use of items seized as evidence in criminal matters. The degree of protection for each case varies with the arrest, detention nature, the surrounding of the place being searched, and the circumstances where the search takes place.

Application of the Fourth Amendment

To understand how the Fourth Amendment functions, it is important to understand the circumstances under which the provision applies. Various legal standards are derived from the Fourth Amendment, which provides constitutional protection to people in various situations, such as when a person is arrested. Additionally this Fourth amendment applies to when police stop a citizen for questioning while walking in the streets in public. Further, it applies when police officers pull over a person for a minor violation of traffic and the police request to search the trunk. Moreover, this constitutional protection may also apply when a police officer walks into a citizen’s house to place them under arrest. The Fourth amendment may also apply if a police officer happens to enter that apartment of a citizen in search of evidence for a crime (Renan, 2016). Moreover, the Fourth Amendment may also apply if an officer of the law places personal property such as a citizen’s car under police control. Worth noting, there are many scenarios that implicates the Fourth Amendment. People should be informed that police officers should not be allowed to seize a citizen or their property unless the officer has a valid warrant of arrest, a search warrant, or a belief indicating the probable cause that a person has committed a particular crime.

Next Cause of Action if Rights are violated

If a person finds themselves in a scenario where a law enforcement officer violates their rights under the Fourth Amendment, the search is deemed unconstitutional. Moreover, any evidence emerging from the search must not be used in building a criminal case against the citizen whose rights have been violated. For instance, if a police search is carried out in someone’s home in violation of the Fourth Amendment, it is considered constitutional. This has to do with the fact that a search warrant was not issued, and there were no special circumstances to justify the search. In this case, the evidence that emerged from this search cannot be used to build a criminal against the homeowner. If recorded conversations or a confession emerge from this scenario, they must be omitted and kept out of the case.

Electronic Surveillance in the Fourth Amendment

In recent years, the Fourth Amendment has gained a lot of attention in the courts, particularly concerning electronic seizures and searches. With the increased popularity of computers and the advent use internet, there is an increase in crimes that occur electronically. As such, the Fourth Amendment also applies to the seizure and search of electronic devices. However, there are reservations about whether police officers are allowed to carry out a search on computer devices used by employees to conduct business. Despite the case being a split, the majority holds that employees have their expectation of privacy if they store personal information on a computer owned by their employer.

Conclusion

The Fourth Amendment of the U. S. Constitution protects citizens against unnecessary intrusion in their homes, business places, and property from law enforcement officers. Over the last few years, the Fourth Amendment has been debated widely as intelligence and policies agencies have engaged in many controversial activities primarily regarding the electronic use of devices. The fourth amendment prevents the unlawful use of items which were seized as evidence in criminal matters. The Fourth Amendment applies to when the police stop a citizen from questioning while walking in public streets. Further, it applies when a person is pulled over by police officers for a minor violation of traffic and the police request to search the trunk.

References

Baude, W., & Stern, J. Y. (2015). The Positive Law Model of the Fourth Amendment. Harv. L. Rev., 129, 1821.

Renan, D. (2016). The Fourth Amendment as Administrative Governance. Stan. L. Rev., 68, 1039.