The Importance Of The 4th Amendment

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Have you ever wondered what the 4th Amendment protects you from, or why it was created? The 4th Amendment was created because our Founding Fathers wanted to protect the rights of individuals. In the American colonies, British officials had the power to search residential homes without legitimate justification when they wanted due to the “Writs of Assistance” for instance blanket warrants were used to search and tear through people’s homes because of political dissidence. The 4th Amendment protects people’s privacy and property. This is important because it prevents the government from taking your things, and punishing you for having different opinions and beliefs. There are several safeguards in place to protect peoples 4th amendment rights such that law enforcement needs a warrant, and probable cause to search your property. To the Founding Fathers individual liberties were …show more content…
For instance, the scandal in 2013 when it was discovered that the National Security Agency (NSA) had been secretly collecting phone records and data as well as internet data. In modern society, people will put just about anything on social media which potentially allows the government to track the location, activities, opinions, and beliefs of people without them knowing. These data collection efforts are targeting more than just criminals, it includes everybody. Judge Richard J. Leon, of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia believes that this is unconstitutional because the NSA is recording data of hundreds of millions of other citizens without any particularized suspicion of wrongdoing, retains all of that metadata for five years, and then analyzes, and investigates that data. Whether or not the NSA surveillance is or is not a violation of the 4th amendment it highlights how easy it is for the government to potentially, unconstitutionally invade people’s