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Amendment IV
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The guarantees against ''unreasonable searches and seizures'' of persons, houses, and property, and the insistence that any such searches be based on ''probable cause'' and accompanied by search warrants, were another product of Americans' experience during the Revolution, when British customs officers and soldiers carried out blanket searches and seizures without proper warrants. In recent years, through the use of incorporation doctrine, the Fourth Amendment has been interpreted to mean that police officers at all levels of government must demonstrate probable cause before stopping and searching anyone whom they might suspect of a crime. The precise definition of ''probable cause'' has been much debated, and in many cases police officers are forced to make difficult judgments about whether they should detain an individual and search his or her possessions.
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In an age in which advances in technology have offered the government new ways to gather evidence of a possible crime -- e.g., wiretapping and other means of sophisticated electronic surveillance -- the federal courts have been presented with new dilemmas about how to interpret the provisions of the Fourth Amendment. Enactment of the Patriot Act in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks in 2001 has significantly expanded the government's ability to carry out such surveillance.
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