The Bill of Rights: Amendment 4

Amendment IV

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.

We have finally come to the amendment whose language I have been using in my arguments for the previous amendments. I believe that this is one of the fundamental rights and is part of all rights. The interesting thing to me is how narrow in scope this right is written though I suppose that is probably because this right was written to the government to abide by and not written as a guide for the people.

Lots of commas in this Amendment but let’s break it up and see what we get. Firstly “The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated” This is completely related to actions of the various agencies that are associated with Justice and the Law. It is pretty straight forward in that the government does not have the right to rifle through your property (in this day and age we would have included digital property as well) without just cause and that this right that the people possess shall not be violated.

Secondly “and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation,” This pertains specifically to the “just cause” piece I mentioned in the first section the just cause being the obtaining of a warrant under probable cause and supported by Oath or affirmation. Probable cause is defined by dictionary.law.com as “Sufficient reason based upon known facts to believe a crime has been committed or that certain property is connected with a crime.” This must be supported by oath or affirmation of the party seeking the warrant as to the truthfulness of the information presented in obtaining the warrant.

Lastly “and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.” The warrant must be explicit in where they are searching and what is being searched for. There are some exceptions during the process of executing the warrant, anything that is in plain sight is considered fair game even if it is not in the place described by the warrant. Anything in a trash can is considered to not be private property.

This Right is once again assumed to exist and the writing of this Amendment is not a granting of the Right but a prohibition on the government to prevent them from abusing the rights of the people.

Any comments or suggestions are welcome.

Additionally does anyone actually like the pictures? These are just shots I took and I am playing with some of them in Adobe Lightroom.