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Search And Seizure Has Recently Been A Communal Debated

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Search and seizure has recently been a communal debated issue for most of society. The controversy is split, one stance is for public safety and the other is for privacy. The Fourth Amendment, unreasonable search and seizure, was adopted into The Constitution of the United States to tackle “writ of assistance”, a general search warrant used during British rule. Unlike the general search warrants used during British rule, search and seizure have many guidelines and court precedents preventing law enforcement from randomly going through someone’s property. Like any rule, you will always have rule breakers; if the evidence is illegally seized, then that falls under the exclusionary rule. The exclusionary rule is where evidence is …show more content…

The King would use “writs of assistance” to search and hold anyone. Once liberated, the Founding Fathers introduced the Bill of Rights providing natural rights to all citizens. Life under the King still fresh on the colonist mind they added protection against authority with the due process clause in the Fourteenth Amendment. In The Constitution of the United States, the Fourth Amendment states, “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.” Unfortunately, the people who thought they were above the law would find the holes and loops around the Fourth Amendment. The rule breakers would go to any extent to put a criminal behind bars even if that meant illegally confiscating evidence. The illegally confiscated evidence was pointless in a criminal trial because of the creation of the exclusionary rule. As stated earlier, the exclusionary rule is where the people of the law confiscate evidence illegally from an individual’s personal property, including home, vehicle, and technological devices; meaning it will not hold proof in a criminal trial. The rule was created to stop people who “thought” they were above the law. The exclusionary rule came into play with Weeks vs. U.S. case.

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