When the Founders penned the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution, it was not difficult to identify the “persons, houses, papers, and effects” they meant to protect; nor was it hard to understand what “unreasonable searches and seizures” were. The Fourth Amendment was intended to stop the use of general warrants and writs of assistance and applied primarily to protect the home. Flash forward to a time of digital devices, automobiles, the war on drugs, and a Supreme Court dominated by several decades of the jurisprudence of crime control, and the legal meaning of everything from “effects” to “seizures” has dramatically changed. Michael C. Gizzi and R. Craig Curtis make sense of these changes in The Fourth Amendment in Flux. The book traces the development and application of search and seizure law and jurisprudence over time, with particular emphasis on decisions of the Roberts Court. Cell phones, GPS tracking devices, drones, wiretaps, the Patriot Act, constantly changing technology, and a political culture that emphasizes crime control create new challenges for Fourth Amendment interpretation and jurisprudence. This work exposes the tensions caused by attempts to apply pretechnological legal doctrine to modern problems of digital privacy. In their analysis of the Roberts Court’s relevant decisions, Gizzi and Curtis document the different approaches to the law that have been applied by the justices since the Obama nominees took their seats on the court. Their account, combining law, political science, and history, provides insight into the court’s small group dynamics, and traces changes regarding search and seizure law in the opinions of one of its longest serving members, Justice Antonin Scalia. At a time when issues of privacy are increasingly complicated by technological advances, this overview and analysis of Fourth Amendment law is especially welcome—an invaluable resource as we address the enduring question of how to balance freedom against security in the context of the challenges of the twenty-first century.

This book looks at the rights against unreasonable search and seizure granted to United States citizens under the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution. The author provides historical context and descriptions of the people involved in the passage of this important amendment. Examples showing how the Fourth Amendment is applied in today's modern technological society are provided.

This book is an introduction to the Fourth Amendment which empowers the people as it guarantees interdiction of unreasonable search and seizure.

A July 2012 supplement of the book is available at this link (updated July 6, 2012). Due to the thousands of daily governmental intrusions -- such as airport checks, traffic stops, drug testing, obtaining of digital evidence, traditional criminal law enforcement practices and regulatory inspections -- the Fourth Amendment is the most commonly implicated and litigated part of our Constitution. This treatise comprehensively treats United States Supreme Court caselaw and takes a structural approach to the Fourth Amendment, addressing foundational questions, such as: What is a search? What is a seizure? What does the Amendment protect? Who does it protect? When is it satisfied? When does the exclusionary rule apply? The treatise is organized by topic so a reader can have ready access to current doctrine and is able to examine in additional sections how current doctrine developed. The historical events and the Court's development of search and seizure principles provide context to, and perspective on, current doctrine.

This book explains the different approaches to interpreting the Fourth Amendment that the Supreme Court has used throughout American history, concentrating on the changes in interpretation since the Court applied the exclusionary rule to the states in 1961. It examines the evolution of the warrant rule and the exceptions to it, the reasonableness approach, the special needs approach, individual and society expectations of privacy, and the role of the exclusionary rule.

The Fourth Amendment's protection against unreasonable search and seizure provides the bulwark for police regulation and many other government functions in the United States. This book tells the full story of its complex lineage, including its intellectual roots in England.

Some people believe that the USA PATRIOT Act and Homeland Security Act, passed after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, violate the Fourth Amendment, which guarantees that US citizens have the right to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and belongings against unreasonable searches and seizures. Through full-color and black-and-white photos, engaging text, and primary sources, this book examines the events leading up to the creation and ratification of the Fourth Amendment and its impact on modern American life, including how the Supreme Court must balance the rights of the individual against the needs of the government to keep the nation safe and how technological advances affect our privacy. Sidebars, a list of all ten Bill of Rights, and a glossary are also included.