What happened to protection from unreasonable search and seizure?”
SEARCH AND SEIZURE, UNREASONABLE. The Fourth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States prohibits “unreasonable searches and seizures.” To circumvent this prohibition, the government must obtain a warrant to search and possibly seize one’s person or property. The Fourth Amendment demands that such a warrant must be based on the sworn or affirmed testimony of a law enforcement official, must be specific as to the place to be searched and the person or thing to be seized, and will not be issued “but upon probable cause.” These strong protections against intrusion by the federal government into personal space have their origins in the hated writs of assistance that had been issued by Great Britain beginning more than a hundred years before America declared its independence. These writs were broad, general search warrants that the British Crown used to discourage colonial smugglers who were trying to evade various tax and trade restrictions. According to leading patriots such as Ja
