Purpose of Fourth Amendment

Amendment Four which discusses searches and seizures is definitely an important Amendment it guards a person from unreasonable searches. A person cannot just out of the blue be searched by a police official. If this were the case any and everyone would be searched and their property would be seized by officials on more then one occasion. Establishing this Amendment shows that government officials are not allowed to use their powers and perform random searches and seizures because they have nothing better to do. Without this Amendment people would defiantly lose their privacy leading to the lose of their freedom, if privacy is able to be invaded freedom is being lost.

Katz v. United States

Charles Katz was proven guilty of illegal gambling in the state of California. He was making illegal beats with others in Miami and Boston via telephone. Not knowing that his phone conversation had other listeners he proceeded to make the illegal beats, and was soon convicted based on the phone recordings. This Case went through the United States Supreme Court which extended the Fourth Amendment protection form unreasonable search and seizures to also protect individuals in telephone booth from wiretaps by authorities without warrants.

Should Katz be convicted of his illegall activities even though his rights given in the Bill of Rights were violated?

 The court’s decided to side with Katz, holding that the Fourth Amendment protects the right of his privacy, in any situation or place he may be. They decided that the Fourth Amendment protects people not places.  Justice Stewat said, “No less then and individual in a business office, in a friends apartment, or in a taxi cab, a person in a telephone booth may rely upon the protection of the Fourth Amendment.” I totally agree with the courts decision, there was no reason that Katz’s phone conversation had other listeners. Even though he was doing illegal activities his privacy first and foremost was violated which is a given right stated in the Amendments.

http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/getcase.pl?court=US&vol=389&invol=347

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katz_v._United_States

http://www.uscourts.gov/outreach/resources/katz/index.html
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