Research Paper on:
Individual Protections Offered by the US Constitution's 4th Amendment

Unformatted Sample Text from the Research Paper:
rule has encouraged the amendments failure to "integrate the substantive and procedural components of this right" (Colb 1456-1525). The grave importance of securing ones personal privacy against unjustified invasion  is of paramount importance in contemporary society, yet somewhere along the passage of time, the Fourth Amendment has been compromised to such an extreme that it has become difficult for  one to discern its true benefit to the people. "Fourth Amendment analysis that pits the privacy rights of individuals against public crime control concerns fails to consider all the  types of harm that the amendment is intended to prevent" (Colb 1456-1525). Since the Constitutions inception, there have been some questionable applications  of subsequent amendments which were put in place as a means by which to protect citizens, yet are being employed instead to seemingly twist the original meaning. Such is  the case with accused criminals and the Fourth Amendment, which is readily and routinely enforced with the help of the exclusionary rule, a congressional - rather than constitutional - amendment  that calls for certain people to be exempt from Fourth Amendment protection. Clearly, there was a dire need for this particular amendment when the worst impact of colonial times  was taking place and people held no inherent human rights when it came to search and seizure violations. Based a great deal upon English law, the Fourth Amendment fully  supported the notion that "a mans home is his castle" and, therefore, protected from those who seek to gain entrance without proper legal backing of probable cause. Without the  protection of Fourth Amendment rights, citizens were nothing more than sitting ducks waiting for bodily and property violations at the whims of law enforcement officials, a situation that detracts from