 One way courts enforce the Fourth Amendment is through the use of the exclusionary rule. The rule provides that evidence obtained through a violation of the Fourth Amendment is generally not admissible by the prosecution during the defendant's criminal trial. The Court stated in Elkins v. United States (1960) that the rule's function "is to deter — to compel respect for the constitutional guaranty in the only effectively available way — by removing the incentive to disregard it."
