Analyzing the Forth Amendment Research Paper

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4th Amendment's evolution and history, together with the "search and seizure" law.

4th Amendment Background

People's rights of being secure in personal effects, papers, houses and persons, against unreasonable seizures and searches, may not be breached, nor shall any warrants be issued, but in case of probable cause, which is supported by affirmation or oath, and describes, particularly, the place that must be searched, or the things or individuals that should be seized, under the 4th Amendment. Like most fields in U.S. law, the English common law forms the principal basis of the 4th Amendment. Broadly, it was created for limiting governmental powers and their capacity of enforcing legal actions upon citizens (4th Amendment - constitution -- Laws.com). Amendment IV was implemented in immediate reaction to the historical writ of assistance's abuse. This writ was a sort of general governmental search warrant employed in the American Revolution's era. Amendment IV was created for limiting law enforcement powers when searching any American resident's personal property. It comes under the "Bill of Rights" - the first ten Constitutional Amendments together with the framework for explaining individual freedoms. These Amendments were put forward and directed to states during the first Congressional session of America's First Congress, under George Washington's presidency. They amendments were ratified later on 15th December, 1791. James Madison introduced these Amendments as a collection of statutory articles, which became effective as Amendments after the ratification process by 75% States.

Amendment IV constitutes the richest source of American constitutional litigation, especially with state application, following its incorporation via Amendment XIV's clause of "Due Process." It has a tremendously broad reach: of the several million arrests made per annum in the U.S., each one marks an Amendment IV event (Guide to the Constitution). Similarly, all searches made of private areas or individuals by public officials (who can be policemen, schoolteachers, airport security officers, crossing guards, or probation officers). Amendment IV is a constitutional custodian of individuals' privacy, when it gets diminished due to a governmental seizure or search. It safeguards citizens' legitimate privacy expectations. According to law, the term "legitimate" implies a real expectation of individual privacy, considered by society as "reasonable." When defining this phrase, Amendment IV's reasonableness clause has generated considerable litigation.

Constitutional Founders' attention to protecting citizens against unwarranted seizures and searches (and in mandating the producing of particularized warrants, according to the Amendment's succeeding Warrant Clause) stems from three famous cases of the 18th century, one from a colony and two from Britain. The two English cases, Wilkes v. Wood and Entick v. Carrington, involved pamphleteers in opposition to the government. They were apprehended, and their papers and books all seized (in the former case, all papers belonging to 49 friends of Mr. Wilkes'). Law enforcement used warrants that did not mention the places or names of suspects that could be searched. Seizing agents were sued by both defendants for trespass. The cases were decided in favor of Wilkes and Entick (Guide to the Constitution).

Law of Search and Seizure in England and Colonies/Formative Years of United States

Amendment VI forbids personal and privacy violations from unwarranted infringement by authorities of the State. The Founders were very clear on what must be deemed as "unreasonable," since they had a first-hand experience of it, under English rule. Before the American Revolution, the English claimed power to furnish writs of assistance enabling law enforcers to force their way into businesses and private homes for seeking proof of smuggling activities. These general search warrants empowered holders to search wherever they desired for smuggled items, and failed to specify which goods to look for or the place to look for them (Fourth Amendment: The History Behind "Unreasonable"). The writs had no expiry date and were regarded as an acceptable alternative to specific warrants. They could also be transferred, and were actually in contradiction to English legal tradition. Sir Edward Coke, the English Attorney General, maintained in the year 1604, in regard to the Semayne Case, that law possessed no unlimited authority of entering private dwellings.

Few Bill of Rights provisions have grown so directly from colonial experience as the 4th Amendment, which embodies safeguarding of citizens against 'writ of assistance' utilization. However, though the claim on liberty from unreasonable seizures and searches as a basic gained late expression among the Colonies and owing to experience, a rich British experience could also be found, on which to draw (Annotation 1 - Fourth Amendment -- FindLaw). A much-celebrated English tenet demonstrated in the 1603 Semayne Case was that everybody's home was their own castle.

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The civil case, Semayne v Gresham, of process execution, nonetheless acknowledged homeowners' rights of defending their home against illegal entry even by agents of the King, whilst concurrently recognizing the appropriate officials' authority of breaking and entering upon notice, for the purpose of making arrests or executing the Throne's process. Entick v. Carrington, one of 18th-century England's most famous cases, was one among a number of civil lawsuits against state authorities who had, using general warrants, raided numerous homes and private property seeking materials linked to John Wilkes' critical pamphlets that attacked the King and British governmental policies.

One colonial grievance against the government of Britain was with regard to warrants (or written authorization) utilized by officials responsible for trade, for searching colonists' personal property for the presence of smuggled items. These documents, or writs of assistance, accorded authorities broad powers to carry out seizures and searches of property on the mere grounds of general suspected unlawful acts. Introduced first in Henry VIII's (1513-47) reign, the English government maintained that these general search/seizure warrants, which failed to declare any specific wrongdoing, were essential for efficient enforcement, particularly against publications regarded as dangerous by the government (The Right to Protection against Illegal Search and Seizure). However, this practice wasn't popular and the controversies that coerced James II to step down from the British throne during the 1688 'Glorious Revolution' led the Parliament to start limiting its power. By the time Revolution began in America, general warrants were already seen to have declined markedly as a press-restraining tool. However, customs officials continued using them unrestrictedly. The British had no objection to broad powers for searching and seizing in the customs area, since these writs were seldom used to seek smuggled items in England. However, the Americans had a dramatically different experience with it.

Warrant laws originated in England and have a long history. Despite British citizens enjoying a right to defending their homes, agents of the law were authorized entry and execution/arrest of individuals in their homes when enforcing the orders of the King. Once the country established its American colonies, laws for searching and seizure were enacted owing to illegal goods' smuggling. British agents in colonies were equipped with lifelong writs (i.e., authoritative documents issued by the court) for searching property for unlawful contraband. Colonial communities were averse to the writs, and by the year 1760, opposition against the documents grew. A lawyer from Plymouth -- James Otis -- influenced Colonists to denounce the writs as they violated individual liberties (Miller). Following the American Revolutionary War, the nation became an independent state requiring a government. Framers established the Constitution, and some wished to delineate citizens' rights. Meanwhile, others considered this an unnecessary task. However, the memories of recent war and its causes influenced Americans to push for the ten Amendments, of which Amendment IV represents a natural freedom. This Constitutional right assured early American citizens that agents could not unreasonably search their houses any longer without proper cause and warrants. Adopted in the year 1791 into the U.S. Constitution, the ten Amendments became American law.

The customs inspectors of Britain, seeking to wipe out smuggling activities occurring in colonial America's Boston region, were provided with general search warrants (writs of assistance) allowing them to look anywhere where they believed they might find contraband. Furthermore, these writs allowed law enforcers to coerce private citizens into assisting them with search activities -- hence, the use of the term 'assistance'.) A few merchants in Boston, with James Otis as their representative, sued, and sought a ruling that these writs weren't valid. Though the merchants' efforts did not succeed, Otis's argument that strongly echoed a defense of citizen privacy became popular and reinforced American opposition to English rule. Later, John Adams said of this argument of Otis's that it gave birth to American Independence. Historians are generally agreed upon the statement that Amendment IV aimed at affirming Entick's and Wilkes' results, and at reversing Writs of Assistance Case's result. Three principles appear to follow from this (Search and Seizure - The Fourth Amendment: Origins, Text, And History, The Current Structure of Search and Seizure Law). Firstly, the government mustn't be authorized to search unless it has substantial justification -- a reason to feel the place they wish to search contains required evidence. This is where the infamous writs failed -- searches were authorized on the basis of mere unsupported suspicions. Secondly, searches, especially….....

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