Monday, June 09, 2014

USA - (minus/without) 4th Ammendment. This is our America today

Police have been given authority by the U.S. Supreme Court to conduct vehicle searches without warrants, based on a trained dog's alerthttp://www.tampabay.com/news/publicsafety/crime/these-pot-searches-by-police-dont-pass-the-smell-test/2182595

 In Carroll v. United States (1925), the Court ruled that law enforcement officers could search a vehicle that they suspected of carrying contraband without a warrant.

The Fourth Amendment (Amendment IV) to the United States Constitution is the part of the Bill of Rights that prohibits unreasonable searches and seizures and requires any warrant to be judicially sanctioned and supported by probable cause. It was adopted in response to the abuse of the writ of assistance, a type of general search warrant issued by the British government and a major source of tension in pre-Revolutionary America. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourth_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized

Under the Fourth Amendment, search and seizure (including arrest) should be limited in scope according to specific information supplied to the issuing court, usually by a law enforcement officer who has sworn by it. Fourth Amendment case law deals with three central questions: what government activities constitute "search" and "seizure"; what constitutes probable cause for these actions; and how violations of Fourth Amendment rights should be addressed. Early court decisions limited the amendment's scope to a law enforcement officer's physical intrusion onto private property, but with Katz v. United States (1967), the Supreme Court held that its protections, such as the warrant requirement, extend to the privacy of individuals as well as physical locations. Law enforcement officers need a warrant for most search and seizure activities, but the Court has defined a series of exceptions for consent searches, motor vehicle searches, evidence in plain view, exigent circumstances, border searches, and other situations.

And there you have it. Your vehicle can be searched without a warrant, so long as the officers can articulate reasonable suspicion. My question is... can they break in and take it apart while searching for something?

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