The Fourth Amendment Explained: US Government Review

[Music] hey guys welcome to hip Hughes history whoo there it's the fourth amendment baby as the Constitution for dummy Series rolls on forward wherever you stand on the issues guys we want you to stand smart and that starts with knowing the text of the Constitution so let's read it let's interpret it let's look at it giddyup I'm ready to do the teaching you're ready to learn it yeah let's do it right now all right before we look at the words of the Fourth Amendment of the Constitution which is basically about search and seizure we really want to give credence to the British for getting us the Fourth Amendment because they were using something during colonial times called writs of assistance and these issued warrants based on basically just innuendo and reasonable suspicion we're being exploited by the British to go through suspected smugglers stuff this is a reaction to kind of the taxing issue that's going on in the 1760s in colonial America and the British are pissed and they're going through our stuff and they're using these flimsy writs of assistance so that experience that experience of not having clear language about what gives the permission of the government to go through my stuff my castle turns into the Fourth Amendment so let's look at the words pay attention they're really important by 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 all right so we have very specific language and in a moment we're going to look at three basic questions what constitutes search and seizure you have to activate search and seizure in order to need that search warrant and then be if we do have enough evidence what does that rise to in terms of probable cause what does probable cause mean and thirdly what happens if the police ignore this if there's not a good search for it is there any repercussions so if we look at selective incorporation and selective incorporation is this concept that the Fourteenth Amendment and the Clause the Due Process Clause no state shall deny its citizens due process is going to create an opportunity for the court through judicial review in the Warren Court to basically take that Fourth Amendment and to make some Universal kind of national rules about what search and seizure really means and what's going to occur if the police violate that rule so let's take a look at the basic rules of search and seizure what is search so a court case called Smith versus Mary is what really defines whether search and seizure is going to rise to the level where you're going to need a search warrant and basically what the court says is that two things have to occur before we even go to search warrants and then talk about probable cause the first is is that there's an individual expectation of privacy that you expect what you're doing is guarded and then second that society expects that as well that there's kind of a national acceptance of this principle that this activity is protected under the Fourth Amendment these rules do kind of like a breathe a little bit let's look at how they breathe out and expand your rights they expand your rights first in weeks first through the United States where basically what the courts going to say in 1914 that is if the federal agents find evidence illegally without a search warrant you can't use that evidence at trial and this is interpreting the words of the Fourth Amendment now if you're a strict interpretation list and sometimes I'll hear people online talking about how we have to follow the letter of the Constitution that there is nowhere in the Fourth Amendment a clause that states if you don't have a search warrant you find evidence what happens to that evidence so mat versus Ohio 1961 is the court case that expands this to the States we've talked about this in other lectures selective incorporation the court using the Fourteenth Amendment and the Fourteenth Amendment has this language no state shall deny its citizens equal protection and due process under the law so in 1961 there was a little lady named map and the police went to her house without a warrant they were looking for a suspect in a crime and she wanted a search warrant they gave her a phony search warrant and then they ripped the lady's house apart and they ended up in her basement going through her drawers they find a chest they open it up and inside his dirty magazines obscene pornography at the time hashtag ill she's a nasty dirty little old lady but in this court case what she's going to argue is that no state Ohio shall deny me missus map due process under the law meaning that if you don't have a search warrant there has to be a repercussion and that repercussion the court is going to decide is the expansion of the exclusionary rule you've seen it on law and order a million times you so in Terry versus Ohio guys with the court did was they limited the Fourth Amendment by saying that the police didn't need a search warrant when it came down to kind of these short-term encounters that if the cops had reasonable suspicion to think that you're a flight risk or that there's evidence that you might be a danger to them or something like that that they had the right for their own protection to do a pat-down and not needing a search warrant to do that or to stop you for questioning or maybe look in the glove box if they felt there was a threat there or something like that what becomes interesting is that they do need reasonable suspicion they need some type of fact to grab on to so I've seen videos on YouTube you probably could check out the link below I'll put it in the description where a law student carrying your gun basically tells the police there ask the police what right do you have to ask me anything right what did I do wrong and the cop says some people called and said there was a guy with a gun since I was the guy with a gun I have a license can I go and he says I'd like to see some ID since I don't think give you ID where I'm going to give you ID know what did I do wrong if I did something wrong tell me what I did wrong I'll give you an e and he was really really standing on the Fourth Amendment saying that if this is a search and seizure if you're stopping me and getting in the middle of my natural right life you need a reason so I don't know if you should try it out there on the streets guys but that's what happened so where do you have this expectation of privacy and that's really what comes down to the cats decision this is really where they expanded search warrants from not just a physical location to the individual I believe that they had wiretap the outside of a phone booth and they were trying to get this dude I guess cats and he went into the phone booth he thought that he was having a private conversation and it was being recorded and the police said we don't need a search warrant because we're not invading this guy's home it's a public area and what the co the judges said in that court case was that there was an expectation of privacy so if you have an expectation of privacy then in a sense they need a search for it and of course we've defined that further by saying there's a societal expectation as well [Music] are there exceptions to search warrants of course there are we can't conceal kit ourselves for instance there's the plain view doctrine so if you have your curtains open and you're in the window and you are you know stabbing the guy and you see the police and you like yo sup hey no they don't need a warrant to come in right not only is that going to be plain view but that's going to be what's basically emergency circumstances that's another rule you don't need a warrant if someone's screaming bloody murder inside a home you also have a consent exception so of course this is what the police want you to do you know ma'am do you mind if we look through the trunk yeah you're done they're gonna look for the trunk and they have the legal right to you also have court cases like US vs. Leone which in the 1980s created a good-faith exception to the to the search warrant so if the police are acting in good faith and they think they have a good search warrant and they go to 400 Main Street when they should be going to 300 Main Street but I don't know a raindrop hit the number that the evidence sees that that wrong address is going to be used in court because the cops didn't do it with bad faith it was an honest mistake you also have the court case Nix versus Williams and next versus Williams you have the inevitable discovery doctrine that basically if you have a bad warrant but they were going to find that evidence anyway maybe they were doing house-to-house searches for some legal reason I don't know that that evidence can be put into trial as well but there's also been some wins some wins for the people recently there was a court case that examined whether or not the cops could put a GPS monitor on your car and that was struck down they said no that you had an expectation of privacy when you're driving around that you're not being GPS there was another court case where they couldn't get a search warrant so what the cops would do is they bring drug dogs to the front of your door and then the drug would be like the dog would be like run around rob drug house and they'd use that to get the search warrant and the Court struck that down they said that was an invasion of privacy the Fourth Amendment rocks the party that rocks the party because not only is it a great amendment to talk about when you're talking about your most very basic freedoms your house is your castle but you have all of these current events which just kind of smack right into it so what do you think is the NSA and what they're doing collecting data in order to protect us from terrorism is that a violation of the Fourth Amendment is there an expectation of privacy there on the internet is there a societal expectation of privacy [Music] one other thing worth mentioning is the FISA courts the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of I believe it's 1978 created a special court system so if there's some type of threat of maybe domestic terrorism with foreign influences you know invading the country or infiltrating the country that you don't need to go through the ordinary ways to get a search warrant you can go to this secret court you can even go and believe twenty-four hours after that the fact that you got the evidence that you went in without a warrant you get the warrant after the fact and basically this secret Court has approved thousands of search warrants with probably very little evidence and a lot of people don't know because it's not transparent so there's no certainly that's a worry about - so certainly that's kind of another layer on this monkey layer on the monkey after 9/11 the FISA courts were expanded and using kind of the threat of terrorism Bush and Obama have used the FISA Court to kind of get around some of the probable cause restrictions that the Fourth Amendment has for domestic issues makes it a little bit easier all right we probably went a little bit long but it's the fourth amendment what are you going to do make sure you check out other lectures make sure you subscribe description below if you click that button you go to the Constitution for dummies series and you can watch as many as you want and certainly if you uh look down below you'll find other edu gurus that you should be checking out and I've talked way too much fourth amendment stick a fork in a baby knock knock knock who's there not me he's where attention goes energy flows and I'm going this way [Music]

Channel: Hip Hughes

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Keywords: search warrants, fourth amendment, us constitution, bill of rights, hip hughes, social studies, elearning, flipped lesson, crash course, high school, apush, us history review, apgov, american government, civics, United States Constitution (Constitution), Fourth Amendment (Constitutional Amendment), lecture, learning, college, khan academy, School, advanced placement, collge, Constitution, Keith Hughes, Constitutional Amendment, 4th Amendment, the fourth amendment explained

Id: 6_3c5lqYAl8

Length: 12min 41sec (761 seconds)

Published: Sat Nov 02 2013