Summary Of The Fourth Amendment: Reasonableness Requirement

A. Fourth Amendment: Reasonableness Requirement
The Fourth Amendment prohibits unreasonable searches and seizures of persons, papers, houses, and effects by the government. A search or seizure occurs when the government violates a person’s reasonable expectation of privacy. Under two-prong Katz test, a reasonable expectation of privacy exists, where (1) a person exhibits a subjective expectation of privacy, and (2) society deems the expectation objectively reasonable. Under the subjective test, an individual, by his conduct, must show that he seeks to preserve the object of the search as private. Under the objective test, the individual's expectation of privacy must be justifiable by societal norms or laws. Societal norms refer to customs of the place and time.
On December 18, 1967, the Supreme Court held that warrantless wire-tapping of a public phone booth to record a defendant’s conversations was an unreasonable search and seizure under the Fourth Amendment. The Court held that the defendant had a reasonable expectation of privacy because he expected his phone conversation to remain private when he shut the door to prevent an unintended person from listening to his conversation.
In his concurring opinion, Justice Alito argued that longer term GPS monitoring is highly intrusive as it can reveal intimate details about a person. He also pointed out that reasonable expectation of privacy under Katz test changes with technology. In her concurring opinion, Justice Sotomayor, agreeing with Justice Alito, argued that long-term GPS tracking reveals a person’s personal, political, and religious