Indianapolis strongvstrong. Edmond Roadblock to Fourth Amendment Erosion.pdfVIP

INDIANAPOLIS V. EDMOND: ROADBLOCK TO FOURTH AMENDMENT EROSION OF INDIVIDUAL SECURITY Samuel Bateman* The text of the Fourth Amendment 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 particu- larly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized., Generally, under the guidance of the Fourth Amendment, every search or seizure by a government agent must be reasonable. The Supreme Court inter- preted this requirement to mean that an arrest or search must be based on prob- able cause and executed pursuant to a warrant. Courts have created a number of exceptions to the warrant and probable cause requirements of the Fourth Amendment, such as investigatory detentions, seizures of items in plain view, warrantless arrests, inventory searches, administrative searches, border patrol searches, vehicle searches, and special needs searches.3 However, in balancing these exceptions, the Court has traditionally required some level of individualized suspicion to justify government intrusion 4 on an individuals privacy. In the absence of individualized suspicion or prob- able cause of wrongdoing, a search or seizure is ordinarily unreasonable.5 One area in which courts have upheld suspicionless searches