Protecting Privacy Under the Fourth Amendment
Protecting Privacy Under the Fourth Amendment The Fourth Amendment' has explicitly been held to protect personal privacy2 since at least the mid-nineteenth century.3 Experts in many fields, including law, psychology, philosophy and sociology, believe that privacy is vitally important to all human beings,' and the Supreme Court has 1. The Fourth Amendment provides that: 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. U.S. CONST. amend. IV. Under the Fourteenth Amendment, the states must comply with the provisions of the Fourth Amendment. Mapp v. Ohio, 367 U.S. 643, 655 (1961). 2. As a constitutional concept, privacy is an elusive yet fundamental value. Although the word "privacy" does not appear in the Constitution, the Supreme Court has recognized a constitutional right to privacy based upon provisions of the First, Third, Fourth, Fifth, and Ninth Amendments and their respective "penumbras." Griswold v. Connecticut, 381 U.S. 479, 484-85 (1965); cf Beaney, The ConstitutionalRight to Privacy in the Supreme Court, 1962 SUP. CT. REV. 212, 215 ("The nearest thing to an explicit recognition of a right to privacy in the Constitution is contained in the Fourth Amendment".) This right to privacy is a "fundamental personal right, emanting 'from the totality of the constitutional scheme.' " Griswold v. Connecticut, 381 U.S. 479, 494 (1965) (Goldberg, J., con- curring) (quoting Poe v.
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