About The 4th Amendment to the US Bill of Rights
The 4th Amendment: Search and SeizureThe 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.
This amendment talks about how you have to have a search warrant to be able to go into someones house and look in their stuff. The purpose of this amendment protect others writes and freedom to bear arms there is a limit to the amount of punishment. Say that some one goes into another persons house and look at their personal info, they cant go to jail forever.
Veronica v. Action (1995)
In order for an examination, you had to give them a Urine sample to test for drugs. One boy thought it was against the 4th amendment because it was an invasion of his privacy. The court says that because that they change and shower together in the locker room, giving a urine sample would be even less then that.
New Jersey v. T.L.O. (1984-1985)
A girl was accused of smoking in the girls restroom. She was questioned and her purse had been searched. A bag of marijuana was found. But was this in violation of the 4th Amendment? "The presence of rolling papers in the purse gave rise to a reasonable suspicion in the principals mind that T.L.O. may have been carrying drugs, thus, justifying a more thorough search of the purse." It was not a violation of the amendment because a "probable cause" exists.
Mapp v. Ohio (1963)
A police forcibly entered a home. They did not have a warrant to enter and search the home. They found "illegal obscene materials". The supreme court stated that that the case was to be removed from court because it didn't have the proper search warrant.
If we didn't have the 4th amendment our privacy would be violated. Our homes could be searched and trashed and for no reason! That's why search warrants are required.
#1: "The Oyez Project." New Jersey v. T.L.O. SCOTUSblog. 4 Dec. 2008 http://www.oyez.org/cases/1980-1989/1983/1983_83_712/.
#2:"Important supreme court cases." Marbury v. Madison. Rights matter. 4 Dec. 2008 http://www.oyez.org/cases/1792-1850/1803/1803_0/.
#3:"Important supreme court cases." Vernonia v. Acton. Rights matter. 4 Dec. 2008 http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/cgi-bin/getcase.pl?court=us&vol=515&invol=646.
