4th Amendment Case Study

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The Fourth Amendment gives people the right to be secure in their persons, houses, papers and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures and that no warrant can be issued without probable cause (Constitution Center). Selective incorporations gives the courts the rights to make universal rules about the 4th amendment defining what search and seizure mean. The court case Smith v. Maryland identified when a search warrant is needed and that there has been an understanding of when a search warrant is justified. In 1967, the idea of an expectation of privacy was presented, with the case Katz v. United States in which the judges emphasize that the amendment applies to the people, not to the circumstance or environment, explaining why Katz won the suit (Oyez). As search warrant are a major …show more content…
Other exceptions include consent searches and plain view searches. To determine the validity of the defendants claims, a pretrial hearing called Motion of Suppress is called (LII). If the evidence is found to be in violation of the fourth amendment, the exclusionary rule is applied. As shown by the case Weeks v. United States, the exclusionary rule dismisses any evidence gathered in an illegal search. However courts have also established exceptions to the exclusionary rule such as the good faith exception, where an officer acting in good faith performs a search while under the false impression that a warrant has been issued, demonstrated in U.S v Leon. Over the years, the probable cause has been interpreted many different ways. One addition is the use of k-9 dogs. The case United States v. Place ruled that a K-9 sniff in a public place is not search because a dog can sniff out smells without having to look through or search a person's possessions. Probable cause by K-9 can be used in airports, schools and anywhere that is public