Fourth Amendment Case Study

To be frank, the fourth amendment is a security blanket for American citizens; it protects them from illegal searches and seizures. The amendment was one of the first ten, which made up the original bill of rights in the constitution. Many were added to it since then, but the first ten remain extremely important. Without the fourth amendment, America and its citizens could be subject to searches and seizures at any time.

By law the constitution states that the fourth amendment is 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

Redding. The case was argued on April 21, 2009 and decided on June 25, 2009. Accused of having ibuprofen, which violated school rules, Savanna Redding was strip searched without consent, which violated her 4th amendment rights. She was questioned and complied fully, but the school still didn’t think it was enough or believed her, thus ensued the unconstitutional strip search. Wilson had reasonable suspicion to legally search her outer clothes and backpack, but searching her underwear and stripping her was completely too far, and there was not enough prior evidence for the severity of the search. The landmark case isn’t too hard to understand, a child was stripped down to being almost naked and had to expose herself to be searched for headache medicine even though she complied with all of the questions and answered truthfully. “… The court of appeals held that Ms. Redding’s Fourth Amendment right to be free of unreasonable search and seizure was violated. It reasoned that the strip search was not justified nor was the scope of intrusion reasonably related to the circumstances.” This was one of the landmark cases that truly challenged the rights stated in the

The cases are referred to as contemporary court cases. Rodriguez v. United States was a recent court case that tested the boundaries of the law. The case involved the issue of the timing of exactly how long an officer can hold off employing a dog after the person in such a stop has received a ticket. The dog was brought on after approximately seven or eight minutes after the ticket had been received. “Absent reasonable suspicion, police extension of a traffic stop in order to conduct a dog sniff violates the Constitution’s shield against unreasonable seizures”. Another recent court case that remarkably challenges the Fourth Amendment is, Riley v. California. The case covered the right of officers to obtain information from cellular devices. The case ended with the need for warrants to be issued to legally search cellphones. There are court cases that will always go on fighting these rights constantly due to error or sheer ignorance, but the natural rights of citizens