Why Is A Bill Of Rights Important

The U.S. Constitution was created to prevent the abuse of police against citizens. The Bill of Rights was added to the U.S. Constitution in 1791, and it protected the individual freedom of the citizens of the United States. The Bill of Rights was the name given to the first ten amendments in the U.S. Constitution. At first, the Bill of Rights only applied to the way that the federal government ran the criminal justice system. In 1868, the fourteenth amendment was added and it included all of the states along with the federal government. The Bill of Rights requires that the criminal justice system respect the right of the citizens and this is usually referred to as “due process”. Due process covers three areas in reference to law enforcement, “(1) evidence and investigation (often called search and
173). Probable cause is very important to the fourth amendment because it is the basis of the officer's reason to arrest, search and seize evidence. A police officer usually can get probable cause simply by observation. A good example of this is when a suspect attempts to run away from an officer and when a suspect is approached he/ she begins to act as if he/she has something to hide. Any evidence that is obtained illegally will not be admitted as evidence in a court case. The exclusionary rule was established in 1914, with Weeks v. United States and it states "courts will exclude any evidence that was illegally obtained even though it may be relevant and material" (Lyman, p. 173). At this time, the exclusionary rule only applied to the federal government. Prior to the Weeks case federal law enforcement did not think that they had to obtain a search warrant and they were violating the rights of the people by conducting illegal