Fourth Amendment Privacy Law: Detailed Analysis of Exceptions

This essay examines the exceptions to the Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which protects individuals from unreasonable searches and seizures. It details the amendment's core principles and limitations, highlighting that while it generally mandates warrants, several exceptions exist. These exceptions include searches conducted with consent, those incident to a lawful arrest, searches based on probable cause or exigent circumstances such as imminent danger, and the plain view doctrine. The essay also addresses scenarios involving abandoned property and open fields, where privacy expectations are considered unreasonable. Furthermore, it notes that some states may provide greater protections than the Fourth Amendment. The analysis emphasizes that voluntary consent to search is a waiver of Fourth Amendment rights, while failure to object to evidence collection during a warrantless search may also be considered a waiver. The essay concludes by summarizing the main exceptions, including consent, property in open fields, imminent danger, and destruction of evidence.

Running head: EXCEPTIONS IN FOURTH AMENDMENT PRIVACY LAW 1
Exceptions in Fourth Amendment Privacy Provision
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EXCEPTIONS IN FOURTH AMENDMENT PRIVACY LAW 2
Exceptions in Fourth Amendment Privacy Provision
The fourth amendment, as provided in the constitution of the U.S. stipulates that people
have a right to security and be protected against unwarranted search by the police in their houses,
persons, cell phones. The amendment protects them against unreasonable seizures and searches
and such a right is not to be violated, warrants shall not be given except upon probable causes
that have support through affirmation or oath with particular description of the places of search
including the things or persons to undergo seizure. The primary objective of the provision under
the law involves having the right of people regarding freedom and privacy protected from the
government’s intrusions found to be unreasonable (LaFave, 2014). However, this statute does
not guarantee the protection from all forms of seizures and searches except for those that the
government does and are deemed quite unreasonable by the law. For people to claim violation of
this amendment as the cause of suppressing relevant evidence for a given case, the court had the
requirement that the claimant is to prove being the victim of invaded privacy so that there is
valid standing for claiming to be protected by the provisions. The Supreme Court has however,
departed from the requirements after an aspect of exception was determined to entirely offer a
solution to the substantive querry of whether there was a violation of rights as stipulated
(Slobogin, 2013). The claimant is required to demonstrate an expectation of privacy that is
justifiable to have been violated by the government arbitrarily. Generally most warrantless
searches on people are prohibited under this fourth amendment except for specified exceptions.
For instance warrantless searches may be lawful when officers are asked or given the
consent to conduct a search; if such searches are incident to arrest that is lawful, when a probable
cause for searching exists, or an exigent circumstance exits, calling for this type of search.
Exigent situations occur when there is a case with people being in imminent danger, prior to the

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imminent escape of a suspect or where the evidence is about to be imminently destroyed by the
suspect (Slobogin, 2013).
Additionally warrantless seizure or search of peoples’ property is not illegal when there is
a case of plain view regarding the objects of search. This is supported by the case of abandoned
property or the properties found in open fields which also do not violate the amendment. The
reason is that having a privacy expectation to such properties is not reasonable. However, some
states have an exception to this form of limitation as the authorities grant the protection to
properties in open fields (LaFave, 2014). These states are able to establish higher search and
seizure standards of protection, than provided in the fourth amendment, provided they do not
violate its various provisions.
The other case of exception is found in situations where the victim consents to the act of
search of seizure after being a suspect. The fourth amendment right is to be waived when there is
a voluntary consent to the search by the suspect or the victims fails to object to the various
evidence collected by the police during a warrantless seizure or search.
From the evaluation it is clear that the fourth amendment has several exceptions in cases
of consent by suspects, property in open fields or unclaimed, people are in imminent danger,
evidence is in imminent destruction.

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References
LaFave, W. R. (2014). Search and seizure: a treatise on the Fourth Amendment (Vol. 4). West
Group Publishing.
Slobogin, C. (2013). The Poverty Exception to the Fourth Amendment. Fla. L. Rev., 55, 391.