What is the Fourth Amendment Administrative Search Doctrine?
It has long been established that passengers have a Fourth Amendment privacy interest in their carry-on bags and luggage. However, administrative searches are allowed with little or no individualized probable cause that the person being searched is dangerous. That is, searches done to further administrative goals, such as security, rather than to secure evidence of a crime, may be allowed under the Fourth Amendment. Under this doctrine, the government must establish a compelling need to search, that the search will serve the need, and that the decision to search a particular person is not left to the discretion of a field officer. How does Equal Protection Relate to Racial Profiling? The Equal Protection Clauses of the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments provide that the government shall not “make or enforce any law which shall deny to any person equal protection of the Laws”. The courts have identified race, religion, and national origin as suspect classifications that trigger equal prote
