The United States Constitution's Fourth Amendment protects people on U.S. soil from unreasonable search and seizure.

The fourth amendment limits the power of the police to make arrests, search people and private property, or seize any physical items including evidence of criminal activity and contraband such as drugs, weapons, or stolen property.

But, application of search and seizure law is subject to legal interpretation and can change regularly.

The judicial goal of search and seizure laws is to protect the privacy of individuals while allowing a fair balance of power to police and law enforcement to reasonably pursue criminal investigations

Search and seizure often requires law enforcement officials to obtain a search warrant for a search to be considered legal and the results admissible in a court of law.

When police can present probable cause to a judge or magistrate, a search warrant will be granted to authorize the search of a location at a particular time and for particular items.

Probable cause can be established through testimony police or individuals under oath who provide reliable information about the person, place, and things that are the subject of the search warrant application.

Police are always subject to abide by search and seizure laws.

However, these laws provide for immediate and emergency situations where a warrant to search is not required in order for police to enter a place in search of someone or something.

In other words, there are search and seizure situations that are not protected by the Fourth Amendment.

If evidence or contraband is observedin plain view or is obtained by law enforcement in a situation where the Fourth Amendment does not apply, that evidence will be admissible against the accued in court.

Some situations allow an officer to conduct a search and seizure without a warrant. For exampkle, person consents to a search, the search accompanies an arrest and appropriate command procedures used in every arrest are used, the search is necessary to protect the public and prevent immediate destruction of evidence, when a criminal flees a crime scene and is seen by law enforcement to enter an otherwise protected place (this exception is called "hot pursuit." So long as there is no delay by officers to run in after the suspect, the police may enter for purposes of apprehension). Cars, trash cans, school lockers, and backyards can also be searched under some circumstances without the need of first obtaining a search warrant.

When a search and seizure warrant is being executed, police are only legally allowed to search for the specific items listed in the warrant. It does not allow officials to search unnamed areas, persons, or property. But. police are allowed to go beyond the provisions of a warrant to ensure their safety or safety of others, or to prevent destruction of evidence. Most warrants include language that permit wide latitute to police.

For example, suppose police are searching for a firearm inside your home. The police will ask permission to search not only for the firearm (that must be particularly described in their warrant application, i.e. color, make, model, size, etc.) but police will also ask to search for any evidence "tending to connect the [firearm] to its owner, including but not limited to paperwork related to the gun and receipts for purchase of the gun." Such language is routinely employed and virtually always permitted by the judge or magistrate.

But notice how the search can now be broadened: A firearm can't be kept on a hard-drive in your computer but a clerverly crafted search warrant will permit police to take the computer with them and conduct a forensic analysis of its drive memory. Of course, the purpose of the warrant is to located evidence that "tends to connect" ownership of the gun to a particular person, but anything else found on the hard-drive, whether or not it was anticipated by the search warrant, can be found and will be admissible as evidence against the accused later on.

There are often cases where a search and seizure is performed illegally. When this occurs, the evidence obtained and any other evidence gathered that stems from that first illegally obtained evidence may be inadmissible in court. To learn more about your legal rights and options if you are the subject of a search and seizure, contact us and speak to a qualified attorney.