Fourth Amendment: Examples In Three Court Cases

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The Fourth Amendment: Examples in Three Cases The fourth amendment of the Constitution reads, “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” (Weeks V. United States, 1914 para 16). In this paper, I will be providing examples of three court cases in which the fourth amendment was a part of. I will describe each case and its conclusion. Weeks V. the United States court case took place December 1913 through February of 1914. Police officers entered the house of Weeks, being told where the key was to gain entry, by a neighbor. They gained entry without a warrant. They found some papers and other possessions and turned them over to the US Marshal. The police then returned…show more content…
The seizure of documents and then using those documents as evidence against someone is a violation of the fourth amendment as well. The fourth amendment protects citizens against these kinds of unlawful searches. “This case was the first application of what eventually became known as the “exclusionary rule” (Weeks V. United States, 2013). The exclusionary rule is a rule of evidence that disallows the use of illegally obtained evidence in criminal trials. Another case that questioned the violation of the fourth amendment was Silverthorne Lumber Co. V. United States. This court case took place December 1919 through January 1920. This case, like the Weeks V. United States, also questioned whether it was legal for documents to be used under warrantless seizures (Silverthorne Lumber Co V. United States,

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