Christy Bieber has a JD from UCLA School of Law and began her career as a college instructor and textbook author. She has been writing full time for over a decade with a focus on making financial and legal topics understandable and fun. Her work has.
Christy Bieber, J.D. ContributorChristy Bieber has a JD from UCLA School of Law and began her career as a college instructor and textbook author. She has been writing full time for over a decade with a focus on making financial and legal topics understandable and fun. Her work has.
Written By Christy Bieber, J.D. ContributorChristy Bieber has a JD from UCLA School of Law and began her career as a college instructor and textbook author. She has been writing full time for over a decade with a focus on making financial and legal topics understandable and fun. Her work has.
Christy Bieber, J.D. ContributorChristy Bieber has a JD from UCLA School of Law and began her career as a college instructor and textbook author. She has been writing full time for over a decade with a focus on making financial and legal topics understandable and fun. Her work has.
ContributorAdam has resided at the intersection of legal and journalism for two decades. An award-winning journalist and legal strategist, he’s covered high-profile trials in Florida. After law school, Adam and spent two years clerking for a U.S. District Co.
Adam has resided at the intersection of legal and journalism for two decades. An award-winning journalist and legal strategist, he’s covered high-profile trials in Florida. After law school, Adam and spent two years clerking for a U.S. District Co.
Adam has resided at the intersection of legal and journalism for two decades. An award-winning journalist and legal strategist, he’s covered high-profile trials in Florida. After law school, Adam and spent two years clerking for a U.S. District Co.
Adam has resided at the intersection of legal and journalism for two decades. An award-winning journalist and legal strategist, he’s covered high-profile trials in Florida. After law school, Adam and spent two years clerking for a U.S. District Co.
Updated: Jun 2, 2023, 8:00am
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The Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution protects against unreasonable search and seizure. This does not mean you can never be searched. But, if law enforcement act unreasonably and violate your rights, evidence collected can’t be used against you.
This guide explains what the Fourth Amendment is, how it works and what constitutes an unreasonable search and seizure.
The 4th Amendment is one of the amendments, or modifications, to the U.S. Constitution. The Fourth Amendment reads as follows:
“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.”
This Amendment essentially guarantees that your privacy rights cannot be violated. Police cannot search you without probable cause and often, but not always, must obtain a warrant to conduct a search of your person or property.
An unreasonable search and seizure is a search that is conducted without a warrant, without permission or without probable cause that the person or place to be searched has evidence of a crime.
An unreasonable search and seizure is conducted in violation of your Fourth Amendment rights, which are found within the U.S. Constitution and which provide broad protection for your privacy.
The Fourth Amendment protects you from having your property seized or your person or property searched when you have a reasonable expectation of privacy. There is a two-part test typically used to determine if you have a reasonable expectation of privacy in a particular situation:
You have a reasonable expectation of privacy in your own home, for example. But you typically would not have a reasonable expectation of privacy if you threw away trash in a public garbage can. As a result, police would need a warrant and/or probable cause to search your home, but not to search a bag of trash you tossed in a park garbage can.
Law enforcement officials usually must obtain a search warrant to get permission to conduct a lawful search.
A judge must sign off on the warrant and there must be probable cause to justify the search. If a warrant is granted, police can only conduct a search within the scope of the warrant. However, they can also seize other items in plain view, even if they were not part of the original scope of the warrant.
Warrantless searches and seizures are conducted without a search warrant. Evidence collected in a warrantless search is presumed to be unusable unless the search or seizure falls within an exception that permits a warrantless search. Examples include:
The Fourth Amendment applies to government officials, but does not apply to private security forces unless they are acting on behalf of or as agents of the police.
If a security guard searched your backpack without a warrant and turned evidence over to the police that was found within it, you could not have the evidence from your backpack suppressed as a result of a violation of your Fourth Amendment rights.
If your Fourth Amendment rights have been violated, any evidence collected as a result of the unlawful search cannot be used against you. That’s because of a rule called the exclusionary rule.
Evidence that is considered “fruit of the poisonous tree” also cannot be admitted in court. This rule deals with any evidence collected as a direct result of the unlawful search even if it was collected separately.
For example, say police searched your home unlawfully and found a diary describing where you hid stolen property. The diary could, in theory, provide probable cause to search for the stolen property. But if police conducted a separate search and found the property, it would still not be admissible in court.
That’s because the property was only discovered due to the initial illegal search and was thus considered fruit of the poisonous tree.
AdvertisementIf you believe your 4th Amendment rights were violated and you were the subject of an unreasonable search and seizure, you can argue in court that the evidence should be suppressed. If the court determines your rights were violated, the judge will rule that the exclusionary rule applies and the evidence is inadmissible.
This does not necessarily mean the prosecutor would have to drop the charges. If there is other evidence against you, the case could move forward. But, any information collected unlawfully cannot be used to help the prosecutor meet their burden of proving your guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.
If your 4th Amendment rights are violated by an unreasonable search and seizure, speak with an experienced criminal defense lawyer. Your attorney can help you to argue that the evidence should be inadmissible, which could result in criminal charges against you being dismissed.
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AdvertisementAn unreasonable search and seizure is conducted without permission, without a warrant or without probable cause. A search that goes beyond the scope of a warrant could also be considered unreasonable. When evidence is uncovered through an unreasonable search and seizure, it is a violation of the Fourth Amendment and will not be admissible in court.
The exclusionary rule prohibits evidence collected as part of an unreasonable search and seizure from being admitted in court. The evidence cannot be used to help a prosecutor prove guilt. Any evidence collected as a direct result of the unreasonable search is considered fruit of the poisonous tree and is also not admissible.
The Fourth Amendment protects against unreasonable search and seizure. If your person or property is searched or your property seized without a warrant, the search or seizure is considered unreasonable unless it fits within an exception. Exceptions include items in plain view or warrantless searches conducted under exigent circumstances such as when law enforcement officials believe evidence is in imminent danger of being destroyed.
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ContributorChristy Bieber has a JD from UCLA School of Law and began her career as a college instructor and textbook author. She has been writing full time for over a decade with a focus on making financial and legal topics understandable and fun. Her work has appeared on Forbes, CNN Underscored Money, Investopedia, Credit Karma, The Balance, USA Today, and Yahoo Finance, among others.
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