The Choice: The 4th Amendment
Protects people in the United States from unreasonable search and seizure and requires judicial warrants,
Issue #888 The Choice, Friday, July 11, 2025
Every Friday until the end of 2025, we will publish a post about each of the 27 Amendments to the Constitution.
Ironically, when the #ConvictedFelon Donald Trump was running for his second term, he promised his supporters that he would find and deport any immigrant who was also a convicted felon. Now, however, he and ICE are finding, arresting, and/or deporting any legal or undocumented immigrant they can find, over 90% of whom have no criminal offenses. Entering this country illegally is a misdemeanor, similar to a traffic ticket, rather than a felony or a serious criminal offense.
They are intentionally ignoring the rights guaranteed by the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution to all persons in the United States, not just citizens.
Ratified in 1791 as part of the Bill of Rights, the Fourth Amendment is intended to ensure that every individual has the right to be secure against unreasonable searches and seizures, thereby safeguarding citizens from unwarranted governmental intrusions.
The Fourth Amendment emerged because, under British rule, the use of “writs of assistance” allowed agents of the Crown to search colonists’ homes and businesses without specific warrants, fostering resentment and a demand for change.
The Fourth Amendment explicitly 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."
The Fourth Amendment strikes a balance between an individual’s right to privacy and the state's duty to maintain order and security. It establishes the legal standards of "probable cause" and the necessity of judicial oversight through warrants, thereby ensuring that searches and seizures are not conducted on mere suspicion or whim.
The requirement for warrants to be judicially sanctioned and specific in nature ensures that any intrusion by the government is justified, limited in scope, and subject to review. This protects citizens from surveillance and intrusion absent a compelling and legitimate justification, thus safeguarding personal liberties.
ICE is just showing up where brown and Black immigrants may be, including just on the street, and putting them in vans and taking them away. ICE almost never has a judicial warrant or “probable cause” besides what ICE decides is the reason for taking these people. They are also seizing and deporting people who have been here for decades, often since they were children.
Recent court cases have addressed issues such as the legality of police accessing phone data without a warrant and the monitoring of internet activity. The Fourth Amendment is supposed to ensure that the right to privacy and against unreasonable search and seizure remains protected.
It is important for us to understand the Constitution and each of its amendments so that we can protect ourselves against wrongful and possibly illegal government actions, such as those being perpetrated by Trump and ICE.
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I'm sure they will get around subjecting all of us to this in the coming years. Its the way authoritarian governments work. You only need to look at what's happening in Turkey.