Also known as: Fourth Amendment search and seizure · 4th Amendment searches and seizures · Fourth Amendment unreasonable searches and seizures · search and seizure · unreasonable searches and seizures · Fourth Amendment
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
A constitutional guarantee that protects individuals against unreasonable governmental intrusions into their persons, houses, papers, and effects. The protection requires warrants to issue only upon probable cause supported by oath or affirmation and describing with particularity the place to be searched and the persons or things to be seized. A search occurs when government conduct violates a person's reasonable expectation of privacy.
Select any source to read its text and confirm it supports the definition.
State agricultural officers arrived unannounced at Randy's hemp farm and used bolt cutters to open a padlocked shed containing feed invoices. Randy had secured the shed to keep business records private. The forced entry without a warrant or consent raised whether the officers' actions violated Randy's protected interest in the shed's contents.
An officer observed Finn Fletcher commit a minor traffic offense punishable only by fine while driving. The officer arrested Fletcher on the spot without a warrant. The arrest raised whether the Fourth Amendment permits custody for such an offense committed in the officer's presence.
Officers knocked at Farah Fox's home and announced their presence. Inside, Fox began flushing suspected contraband down the toilet. The officers entered without a warrant to stop the destruction. The entry raised whether the resulting exigency justified the intrusion despite arising after the knock.
State officers seized documents from Freya Freeman's home without probable cause or a warrant. Prosecutors sought to introduce the documents at Freeman's trial in state court. Freeman moved to exclude the evidence on the ground that the Fourth Amendment violation required suppression.
EPA agents entered Leslie's shared newsroom using a borrowed badge and opened her locked filing cabinet and laptop bag. Leslie had kept both containers secured. The agents' actions raised whether Leslie held a reasonable expectation of privacy that the government violated.
Federal officers detained Jackson on a public sidewalk and took his phone while he livestreamed a protest. Jackson had been complying with orders to remain behind barricades. The officers' seizure of the phone raised whether the action implicated protected interests under the Fourth Amendment.
A search occurs when government agents violate a person's reasonable expectation of privacy. The test requires both a subjective expectation of privacy that society recognizes as reasonable. What a person knowingly exposes to the public receives no protection.
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Yes. The exclusionary rule applies to state criminal proceedings through the Fourteenth Amendment. Evidence obtained in violation of the Fourth Amendment is inadmissible in state court to deter police misconduct.
…terms of the taking of property; the freedom of speech, press, and religion; the right to keep and bear arms; the freedom from unreasonable searches and seizures; and so on. It is a rational continuum which, broadly speaking, includes a freedom from all substantial arbitrary impositions and purposeless restraints . . . and which also recognizes,…
…Fourth Amendment explicitly affirms the “right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures
…terms of the taking of property; the freedom of speech, press, and religion; the right to keep and bear arms; the freedom from
…an unwanted smallpox vaccine against the State's interest in preventing disease. Decisions prior to the incorporation of the Fourth Amendment
…under the Fifth Amendment; his right to counsel under the Sixth Amendment
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Officers may enter without a warrant to prevent imminent destruction of evidence. The exigency must arise after officers knock and announce, provided they reasonably believe evidence is being destroyed and did not create the exigency through a prior Fourth Amendment violation.
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Yes. The Fourth Amendment permits a warrantless arrest for a misdemeanor committed in the officer's presence even when the offense carries only a fine and no incarceration.
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A warrant must particularly describe the place to be searched and the persons or things to be seized. The description must be specific enough to limit the scope of the search to areas and items supported by probable cause.
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