Right of search

“ The right of officers to thrust themselves into a home is also a grave concern, not only to the individual but to a society which chooses to dwell in reasonable security and freedom from surveillance. When the right of privacy must reasonably yield to the right of search is, as a rule, to be decided by a judicial officer, [p185] not by a policeman or government enforcement agent. ”

“ The right of search in time of war, that is, a belligerent right of search, America never denied, but there was both then and later much public confusion in both countries as to the question at issue since, once at war, Great Britain frequently exercised a legal belligerent right of search and followed it up by the seizure of sailors alleged to be British subjects. ”

“ That every freeman has a right to be secure from all unreasonable searches and seizures of his person, his papers and property; all warrants, therefore, to search suspected places, or to apprehend any suspected person, without specially naming or describing the place or person, are dangerous, and ought not to be granted. ”

“ Such a claim can only be made by sliding from a search of the person to a search for things in his 'possession' or 'in his immediate control,' without regard to the treacherous ambiguity of these terms, and then using these phrases, taken out of their original context, so as to include the entire premises.
The short of it is that the right to search the place of arrest is an innovation based on confusion, without historic foundation, and made in the teeth of a historic protection against it. ”

“ The right of the 'people to be secure in their persons' was certainly of as much concern to the framers of the Constitution as the property of the person. Yet no one questions the right, without a search warrant, to search the person after a valid arrest. The right to search the person incident to arrest always has been recognized in this country and in England. ”

“ The compulsory production of a man’s private papers to establish a criminal charge against him is within the scope of the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution, in all cases in which a search or seizure would be; because it is a material ingredient, and effects the sole object of the search and seizure. Compulsory production of papers is unwarrantable search and seizure. Such unwarrantable seizure of books and papers is compelling a person to be a witness against himself. The offense consists in the “invasion of the indefeasible right of personal security.” ”

“ The person, his or her papers and dwelling are exempt from unwarrantable searches, seizure, or invasion. The exemption here goes to the fundamental supremacy of the civil over the military authority. A warrantable search is lawful because the sovereign—the State or the United States—has198 the primary right of self-protection, safety, peace, good order,—indeed, the right to realize the essential purposes and ends of sovereignty. ”

“ The right to security in person and property protected by the Fourth Amendment may be invaded in quite different ways by searches and seizures. A search compromises the individual interest in privacy; a seizure deprives the individual of dominion over his or her person or property. ”

“ It is unsurprising that in our prior cases we have concentrated on what the majority terms a policy's ultimate goal, rather than its proximate purpose. By very definition, in almost every case the immediate purpose of a search policy will be to obtain evidence. ”

“ If, however, the original discoverers are not able to fulfil the authorized conditions, any person whatever, who is acquainted with the circumstances, and able to do so, may take the affair into his own hands, and conduct it for his own advantage, without noticing the claims of the former parties in any way. When an individual is thus able to satisfy the demands of the government, the rights of search and of extension are allowed him ”

“ How this purpose can be served by the broad and unqua ified rule adopted by the Court today is something of a mystery. Of course, the shortcomings inherent in any human system make it impossible to eliminate entirely all the incentives to conduct an illegal search. ”

“ And when history is inconclusive, as the majority amply demonstrates it is in this case, see ante, at 4—24, we will “evaluate the search or seizure under traditional standards of reasonableness by assessing, on the one hand, the degree to which it intrudes upon an individual’s privacy and, on the other, the degree to which it is needed for the promotion of legitimate governmental interests.” ”

“ The Government's last resort in support of the arrest is to reason from the fruits of the search to the conclusion that the officer's knowledge at the time gave them grounds for it. We have had frequent occasion to point out that a search is not to be made legal by what it turns up. ”

“ The 'special needs' doctrine, which has been used to uphold certain suspicionless searches performed for reasons unrelated to law enforcement, is an exception to the general rule that a search must be based on individualized suspicion of wrongdoing. ”

“ Still, it is necessary that the descriptive calls should designate the place so nearly, as to give information which would enable a subsequent locater of ordinary intelligence to find the land previously entered, by making a reasonable search. ”

“ In sustaining the search of the automobile I believe the Court ignores the framework of our past decisions circumscribing the scope of permissible search without a warrant. The Court has long read the Fourth Amendment's proscription of 'unreasonable' searches as imposing a general principle that a search without a warrant is not justified by the mere knowledge by the searching officers of facts showing probable cause. ”

“ Bad men, like good men, are entitled to be tried and sentenced in accordance with law, and when it is shown to us that a person is serving an illegal sentence our obligation is to direct that proper steps be taken to correct the wrong done, without regard to the character of a particular defendant or to the possible effect on others who might also want to challenge the legality of their sentences as they have the right to do 'at any time' under Rule 35. If it has any relevance at all, the fact that there may be other prisoners in this country's jails serving illegal sentences would seem to me to make it all the more imperative that we grant appropriate relief in this case rather than search for some obviously dubious excuse to deny this petitioner's claim. ”

“ In my opinion the important consideration is the presence of an illegal search. Whether state or federal officials did the searching is of no consequence to the defendant, and it should make no difference to us. ”

“ If somebody wants to know why their own government has decided to go on a fishing expedition through every personal record or private document, through library books they've read , phone calls they've made, e-mails that they've sent - this legislation gives people no rights to appeal the need for such a search in a court of law. ”

“ The use in evidence of weapons seized in a 'hot pursuit' search or search incident to arrest satisfies this criterion because of the need to protect the arresting officers from weapons to which the suspect might resort. The search for and seizure of fruits are, of course, justifiable on independent grounds: The fruits are an object of the pursuit or arrest of the suspect, and should be restored to their true owner. The seizure of contraband has been justified on the ground that the suspect has not even a bare possessory right to contraband. ”

“ I believe that the right of property in a slave is not distinctly and expressly affirmed in the Constitution, and Judge Douglas thinks it is. I believe that the Supreme Court and the advocates of that decision may search in vain for the place in the Constitution where the right of property in a slave is distinctly and expressly affirmed I say, therefore, that I think one of the premises is not true in fact. ”

“ Nevertheless, one governing principle, justified by history and by current experience, has consistently been followed: except in certain carefully defined classes of cases, a search of private property without proper consent is 'unreasonable' unless it has been authorized by a valid search warrant. ”

“ Because law enforcement involvement always serves some broader social purpose or objective, under respondents' view, virtually any nonconsensual suspicionless search could be immunized under the special needs doctrine by defining the search solely in terms of its ultimate, rather than immediate, purpose. ”

“ Even where no arrests are made, persons who wish to avoid a search-either to protect their privacy or to conceal incriminating evidence-will almost certainly prefer a brief loss of the use of the vehicle in exchange for the opportunity to have a magistrate pass upon the justification for the search. ”

“ Experience proves that it is a counsel of despair to assume that the police cannot be kept within the bounds of the principles which the Fourth and Fifth Amendments embody except at the cost of impotence in preventing crime and dealing sternly with its commission.
12. To say that the search must be reasonable is to require some criterion of reason. It is no guide at all either for a jury or for district judges or the police to say that an 'unreasonable search' is forbidden-that the search must be reasonable. What is the test of reason which makes a search reasonable? ”

“ Standing to challenge the constitutional validity of a search and seizure has been an issue of some difficulty and uncertainty; [5] it has, nevertheless, hitherto been thought to hinge, not upon the use against the challenging party of evidence seized during the search, but instead upon whether the privacy of the challenging party's premises or person has been invaded. ”

“ It has been considered in the same pattern as search of the person after lawful arrest.
What is a reasonable search is not to be determined by any fixed formula. The Constitution does not define what are 'unreasonable' searches and, regrettably, in our discipline we have no ready litmuspaper test. The recurring questions of the reasonableness of searches must find resolution in the facts and circumstances of each case. ”