Search and Seizure Law

Paper Summary:

This paper examines how search and seizure law, known currently in the United States as law under the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution, has been in existence in one form or another since biblical times. It looks at how those wishing to protect their property and privacy against unreasonable search and seizure have often battled governments, courts, employers, secular groups and even one another in a struggle between the rights of the individual and the rights of the general public and legal systems. It discusses how the United States Court system has consistently narrowed these rights and how it is this history of conflict that has led to the current interpretations of the search and seizure law.

From the Paper:

"According to Roman culture, the house was under special protection of the household gods. Anyone who reached the fireplace of a house was offered the protection of the gods. Even Cicero discussed the concept of the home as a protected asylum, when he stated that the house of a citizen was to be defended since in was "a place of refuge so sacred to all men that to be dragged from thence is unlawful" (Lasson, 15).
However, it is in these Roman times that one can begin to see the shift to allow for certain types of search and seizure within a court of law. While individual persons were responsible for their own prosecution against others, they were still given a warrant, which allowed them full rights to gather evidence. This "evidence" included all papers and documents relating to the case, and was obtained through a search of the home of the accused, or through a search of any other home (Lasson, 16). As one can see, the ambiguousness of the warrant for search and seizure allowed the prosecution to search anyone, and seize any documents they felt "necessary"."

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