Fourth Amendment Trends and the Supreme Court's October 1999 Term

Abstract

The Fourth Amendment remains one of the most vital and relevant areas of constitutional law, since the "right... against unreasonable searches and seizures' can touch our lives in a number of ways. Almost everyone has been on the receiving end of law enforcement's attention, or knows someone who has-whether in a customs inquiry, a stop for a traffic violation, or a full patdown search-and therefore knows that it is a nerve-wracking experience at best. Those applying the Fourth Amendment, such as law enforcement officials or prosecutors, also know that complying with the Fourth Amendment often requires hard decisions under pressure in areas where the courts themselves are unclear. From either perspective, the Fourth Amendment is a complex and central part of the interaction between citizens and the government.