Opinion ID: 787362
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Constitution Requires Individualized Suspicion for Law Enforcement Searches

Text: 111 The Fourth Amendment's requirement that searches be supported by reasonable and particularized suspicion and a warrant is deeply rooted in our history. The historical background of that amendment demonstrates that our Framers' were steadfastly committed to the ideal that general warrants and searches conducted in the absence of reasonable and particular suspicion were intolerable in a democratic society. See Henry v. United States, 361 U.S. 98, 100, 80 S.Ct. 168, 4 L.Ed.2d 134 (1959). As the Henry Court noted, 112 The general warrant, in which the name of the person to be arrested was left blank, and the writs of assistance, against which James Otis inveighed, both perpetuated the oppressive practice of allowing the police to arrest and search on suspicion. Police control took the place of judicial control, since no showing of probable cause before a magistrate was required. The Virginia Declaration of Rights, adopted June 12, 1776, rebelled against that practice: That general warrants, whereby any officer or messenger may be commanded to search suspected places without evidence of a fact committed, or to seize any person or persons not named, or whose offence is not particularly described and supported by evidence, are grievous and oppressive, and ought not to be granted. The Maryland Declaration of Rights (1776), Art. XXIII, was equally emphatic. 113 ... 114 That philosophy later was reflected in the Fourth Amendment. And as the early American decisions both before and immediately after its adoption show, common rumor or report, suspicion, or even strong reason to suspect was not adequate to support a warrant for arrest. 115 Id. at 100-102, 80 S.Ct. 168 (internal footnotes and citations omitted). [T]he particular way the Framers chose to curb the abuses of general warrants — and by implication, all general searches — was ... to retain the individualized suspicion requirement contained in the typical general warrant, but to make that requirement meaningful and enforceable, for instance, by raising the required level of individualized suspicion to objective probable cause. Vernonia Sch. Dist. 47J v. Acton, 515 U.S. 646, 670, 115 S.Ct. 2386, 132 L.Ed.2d 564 (1995) (O'Connor, J., dissenting) (emphasis in original). 116 In particular, the Framers feared blanket searches, whereby law enforcement officials would go door-to-door to conduct searches of every house in an area, regardless of suspicion. See id. (noting that the Framers may have considered blanket area searches even more worrisome than the typical general search). They knew that the use of suspicionless blanket searches and seizures for investigatory purposes would subject unlimited numbers of innocent persons to the harassment and ignominy incident to involuntary detention. Davis v. Mississippi, 394 U.S. 721, 726, 89 S.Ct. 1394, 22 L.Ed.2d 676 (1969). It is plain that the Fourth Amendment was meant to prevent [such] wholesale intrusions upon the personal security of our citizenry. Id. 117 Fourth Amendment jurisprudence has evolved considerably over the years. The Court has recognized, for example, a number of reasonable departures from the warrant requirement and in some instance has relaxed the level of suspicion required before a law enforcement official may conduct a search. See, e.g., Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1, 24-25, 88 S.Ct. 1868, 20 L.Ed.2d 889 (1968) (upholding stop and frisk searches upon reasonable suspicion as a general exception to the warrant requirement); Chimel v. California, 395 U.S. 752, 762, 89 S.Ct. 2034, 23 L.Ed.2d 685 (1969) (upholding searches conducted incident to arrest as a general exception to the warrant requirement). The Court has even approved certain limited categories of non-law enforcement searches conducted in the absence of any suspicion at all. See, e.g., United States v. Ramsey, 431 U.S. 606, 616, 97 S.Ct. 1972, 52 L.Ed.2d 617 (1977) (upholding suspicionless border searches pursuant to the longstanding right of the sovereign to protect itself by stopping and examining persons and property crossing into this country); New York v. Burger, 482 U.S. 691, 702, 107 S.Ct. 2636, 96 L.Ed.2d 601 (1987) (upholding warrantless inspections of closely-regulated businesses as a special need beyond the need for normal law enforcement); Treasury Employees v. Von Raab, 489 U.S. 656, 109 S.Ct. 1384, 103 L.Ed.2d 685 (1989) (upholding suspicionless drug testing of high-risk United States customs officials as a special need beyond the need for normal law enforcement); Chandler v. Miller, 520 U.S. 305, 323, 117 S.Ct. 1295, 137 L.Ed.2d 513 (1997) (affirming, without deciding explicitly, the constitutionality of blanket suspicionless searches at airports and entrances to federal buildings when such searches are carefully calibrated to meet a substantial and real risk to public safety). 8 However, the existence of the Warrant Clause in the Fourth Amendment demonstrates beyond doubt that there are some categories of searches for which individualized suspicion is nonnegotiable. Vernonia, 515 U.S. at 673, 115 S.Ct. 2386 (O'Connor, J., dissenting). And whether one attempts to manufacture neat categories with clever names, see ante, at 830-832, or groups them all into one large category of cases involving special needs, 9 118 see Burger, 119 482 U.S. at 702, 107 S.Ct. 2636, the overriding lesson is clear: when the government wishes to search individuals in order to obtain evidence of ordinary criminal wrongdoing, some level of individualized suspicion is required. 10