Individual Project 3 – Search Warrants, Probable Cause, and Searches
The concept of search warrants, probable cause, and searches go hand in hand as part of the legal system. Each step makes the next step part of the process. This process gives us certain civil liberties and are all rooted in the 4th Amendment of the Constitution of The United State of America. The following information will interpret, define, and support the legal justification of warrants, probable cause, and searches.
The definition of a search warrant is a judicial document that authorizes police officers the right to search an individual or a place to attain evidence for presentation in criminal prosecutions. A search warrant is issued to search people or private property in order to seize suspected evidence in a criminal or civil case. The Fourth Amendment of the United States Constitution addresses the issues of search warrants rights in the following:
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.”
Agreeing with The Constitutional Theory of the Fourth Amendment (1988), our forefathers of America recognized during the fight for freedom the harm and abuses that occurred in the colonies to innocent people by the British. When declaring our independence the framers of the Constitution made provisions to protect rights of the every day citizen. This was based on a fear that a police state in any form has the potential to become chaotic and problematic when it has not recognized that freedom and liberty is meaningless when victimization by the police is a real and menacing threat. Subsequently this amendment was designed to protect the rights
References: Handler, J. G. (1994). Ballentine 's Law Dictionary (Legal Assistant ed.). Albany: Delmar. p. 431 Cacace, Robert (2007), Samson v. California: Tearing down a Pillar of Fourth Amendment Protections, 42, Harv. C.R.-C.L. L. Rev., pp. 223 Gerard, Bradley, The Constitutional Theory of the Fourth Amendment, 38 DePaul L. Rev. 817 (1988) Mason, Caleb, JAY-Z’S 99 PROBLEMS, VERSE 2: A CLOSE READING WITH FOURTH AMENDMENT GUIDANCE FOR COPS AND PERPS, Saint Louis University School of Law. Neubauer, D.W. (2004). America 's Courts and the Criminal Justice System. Published by Thomson Wadsworth Criminal courts/ United States Criminal Justice (2008) Retrieved June 26, 2008 from https://mycampus.aiu-online.com/classroom/multimediacoursetext.aspx?classid=15301&t