Balance and the 4th Amendment

By Kristopher A. Nelson
in March 2007

200 words / 1 min.
Tweet Share
A fundamental point of contention in a democratic society is the need to balance the enforcement of laws with the rights of citizens. In the United States, the 4th Amendment to the Constitution protects the rights of citizens to be free from “unreasonable search and seizure.” Throughout our history, the exact meaning of this broad […]


Please note that this post is from 2007. Evaluate with care and in light of later events.

A fundamental point of contention in a democratic society is the need to balance the enforcement of laws with the rights of citizens. In the United States, the 4th Amendment to the Constitution protects the rights of citizens to be free from “unreasonable search and seizure.” Throughout our history, the exact meaning of this broad phrase has been debated, changed, affirmed and changed again, both because of changing societal norms and because of changes in technology. In the modern area, this is nowhere more visible than in the use of wiretaps and their development from early telegraphic use to their modern application of monitoring Internet communications of all sorts.

See: Wiretaps in the Internet Age.