Fourth Amendment[]
Initially, the U.S. Supreme Court interpreted the reasonableness standard of the Fourth Amendment as imposing a presumptive warrant requirement, stating that “searches conducted outside the judicial process without prior approval by judge or magistrate are per se unreasonable under the Fourth Amendment — subject only to a few specifically established and well delineated exceptions.”[1] The Court, however, has wavered from this approach, determining that “a warrant is not required to establish the reasonableness of all government searches; and when a warrant is not required . . . probable cause is not invariably required either.”[2]
References[]
- ↑ Katz v. United States, 389 U.S. 347, 357 (1967) (full-text).
- ↑ Vernonia School Dist. 47J v. Acton, 515 U.S. 646, 653 (1995) (full-text). Interpreted literally, the Fourth Amendment requires neither a warrant for each search or seizure, nor probable cause to support a search or seizure.