The Disappearing Fourth Amendment

The Fourth Amendment is pretty much dead. It has been killed off by the Supreme Court as being too much of a hindrance in the Wars on Drugs and Terror.

In Kentucky v. King, the Supremes held that if the cops knock on a door and they hear "movement", then they can break the door down without a warrant because of "exigent circumstances." But if they hear no movement, can they claim that somebody must be in trouble? Historically, no, but I have little doubt anymore that if a "we knocked on the door, heard nothing, so someone had to have been in trouble and we kicked the door in" fact pattern were presented to the current Supreme Court, that it would pass muster.

At this point, it would seem that very little remains of the Fourth Amendment. Our legal system has forgotten that the Fourth Amendment came about because British officials, before the Revolution would obtain Writs of Assistance, which allowed them to search any place they felt like searching. Those Writs were so hated that protections against unreasonable searches and seizures were about the first protections enacted by the colonies after they declared independence. Abuse of Writs of Assistance were one of the root causes of the Revolution.*

Well, that's over and done with. Now they don't even need a Writ. All they have to do is claim "exigent circumstances" and the cops can barge in. You can't raise a finger against the cops, if you've opened the door a crack, you can't even push it shut. The Fourth Amendment is now just another goddamn set of worship words that the cops and the courts will give short shrift to whenever it pleases them.
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* That, and rich white guys who didn't want to pay taxes.