Texas-Book-Gun Law Armed And Educated - Flipbook - Page 29
your DNA, to what parts of your house the police can look in, the
use of “no knock warrants,” to searching a smartphone are disputed
topics. Commonly known as the law of “search and seizure,” this
is the most crucial protection we have from the government prying
into our private lives and property. Let’s take a closer look at Fourth
Amendment rights.
II. WHAT IS THE FOURTH AMENDMENT?
The constitutional restriction on governmental searches and
seizures is one of the first attempts by any society to protect
the people from the government itself. Simply put, the Fourth
Amendment stops government agents (often the police, but
applicable to any person acting under government authority)
from interfering with, searching, or seizing a person without first
establishing “probable cause” and securing a warrant. The actual
text of the Fourth Amendment reads:
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.
A. Why was this protection included in the Bill of Rights?
The men who drafted the U.S. Constitution and its first 10 amendments,
the Bill of Rights, wanted to keep the government from gaining
overarching power to abuse its citizens. The Fourth Amendment,
specifically, is a result of these founding fathers’ disgust and concern
with the British “writ of assistance.” These writs were widely used
by Great Britain in the American colonies, and functioned as general
search and seizure warrants with no requirement they state what
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