Civics Essay
Lauren Duffy DLK Case
Due: April 9, 2013 Smith
You’re sitting in your house, eating breakfast. All of the sudden, you hear a knock on your door. You slowly raise yourself out of your chair to answer the door. Standing in your doorway are police officers. They suddenly push past you, entering your home, and start searching through your things. What would you do if this happened to you? The Fourth Amendment has been held to mean that a warrant must be judicially given for a search or an arrest. In order for a warrant to be considered reasonable, it must be supported by probable cause. The Fourth Amendment also applies to governmental searches and seizures, but not those done by private citizens or organizations who are not acting on behalf of a government. An important test case of the Fourth Amendment was Katz v. United States (Document A). This case showed that if a person seeks to keep as private, even in an area accessible to the public, may be constitutionally protected. But, in the case of DLK v. United States of America, did the government go too far in using its power of search and seizure? There are three main reasons why the government did go too far in DLK’s case: The picture taken with the thermal imager (Document C) could not have been seen with a naked eye, the search of his property was unreasonable without a warrant, and he did not show or hurt the public. One reason why the government did go too far was that the picture taken with the thermal imager (Document C) could not have been seen with the naked eye. The picture in Document C is an example of the picture the investigators took. You can see where the heat is escaping by looking for the colors of red and yellow. This information however, is only able to be seen with advanced technology, not the naked eye. “When technology can exceed the natural senses, it subverts the human ability to contain private matters in a normal way and threatens
Due: April 9, 2013 Smith
You’re sitting in your house, eating breakfast. All of the sudden, you hear a knock on your door. You slowly raise yourself out of your chair to answer the door. Standing in your doorway are police officers. They suddenly push past you, entering your home, and start searching through your things. What would you do if this happened to you? The Fourth Amendment has been held to mean that a warrant must be judicially given for a search or an arrest. In order for a warrant to be considered reasonable, it must be supported by probable cause. The Fourth Amendment also applies to governmental searches and seizures, but not those done by private citizens or organizations who are not acting on behalf of a government. An important test case of the Fourth Amendment was Katz v. United States (Document A). This case showed that if a person seeks to keep as private, even in an area accessible to the public, may be constitutionally protected. But, in the case of DLK v. United States of America, did the government go too far in using its power of search and seizure? There are three main reasons why the government did go too far in DLK’s case: The picture taken with the thermal imager (Document C) could not have been seen with a naked eye, the search of his property was unreasonable without a warrant, and he did not show or hurt the public. One reason why the government did go too far was that the picture taken with the thermal imager (Document C) could not have been seen with the naked eye. The picture in Document C is an example of the picture the investigators took. You can see where the heat is escaping by looking for the colors of red and yellow. This information however, is only able to be seen with advanced technology, not the naked eye. “When technology can exceed the natural senses, it subverts the human ability to contain private matters in a normal way and threatens