Opinion ID: 1407728
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Foundational Importance of the Fourth Amendment

Text: The Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution was created in direct response to the abuses of general writs of assistance, which gave customs officials blanket authority to search where they pleased for goods imported in violation of the British tax laws. Stanford v. Texas, 379 U.S. 476, 481, 85 S.Ct. 506, 13 L.Ed.2d 431 (1965). The uproar against and denunciation of these general writs, and the abuses by the petty officers to whom they had been issued, were instrumental in giving birth to the child Independence. Boyd v. United States, 116 U.S. 616, 625, 6 S.Ct. 524, 29 L.Ed. 746 (1886) (citations and internal quotation marks omitted). Yet, the roots of the Fourth Amendment go far deeper, Stanford, 379 U.S. at 482, 85 S.Ct. 506, to include all the abuses of the British Crown that the citizens of the Empire had endured for centuries, from the time of the Tudors, through the Star Chamber, the Long Parliament, the Restoration, and beyond, id. ; see also Marcus v. Search Warrant of Prop., 367 U.S. 717, 724-29, 81 S.Ct. 1708, 6 L.Ed.2d 1127 (1961); Boyd, 116 U.S. at 624-29, 6 S.Ct. 524. It is against this backdrop that the Court must determine whether an officer may constitutionally seize an individual because of a single act or omission which is not itself a violation of any law or regulation.