Topic > The 4th and Fourth Amendments: The Fourth and Fifth...

Following the new government that America was to form, the framers of the Constitution believed that major measures were needed to avoid tyranny, as this is what a long, damaging revolutionary war was fought. To prevent the possibility of another cruel and oppressive government, the framers wrote the constitution to protect the people from tyranny at all levels. The authors, when writing the Bill of Rights amendments, focused specifically on how the government will control the people. After facing centuries of control by Britain and heavy surveillance by the tyranny of King George, a change needed to be made to avoid history repeating itself. The amendments critically examined the main activities that infringed people. The Fourth and Fifth Amendments combine to form a unanimous declaration that personal and private property shall be held with the utmost protection and sanctity. The framers of the Constitution learned lessons from why the Revolutionary War was fought and the unconscionable acts committed by the British. For Americans of that generation, protecting private documents was the equivalent of protecting modern emails and messages. Being under the rule of King George was a time when Americans saw their rights usurped by the government. This is what catalyzed the need for the Fourth Amendment. The authors explicitly wrote: “The right of the people to the security of their person, their home, their documents and their effects, against today, any evidence obtained through an illegal search, regardless of whether or not it gives direct evidence of a crime, cannot be used as evidence in a trial. This has become known as the exclusion rule. Steven Bond was on a Texas bus headed to his destination when the Border Patrol agent initiated a random search of passengers' bags for contraband items. Steven Bond went through several judges and appeals and each ignored the illegal search. That is, until the case reached the Supreme Court. In Bond v. United States, the Supreme Court ruled that the officer's search defied the Fourth Amendment and was therefore unconstitutional. In a criminal investigation, a search is considered legal only with probable cause. The probable cause; however, it cannot be considered valid without a search warrant. The authors of the Constitution knew that similar cases would occur sooner or later. Despite the foresight, the amendments require a mandate to prevent abuse by a powerful person