On the 4th Amendment - Research Paper Example

Around 1760s, there was a rise in the amount of litigation against law enforcing officers, who, making use of general warrants did raids, searching for materials linked to publications of John Wike, in the process attacking both the King himself as well as the government policies. One of the most popular of such cases concerned John Entick, who had his dwelling intruded by Nathan Carrington, a messenger of the king, alongside many others, following a warrant given out by George Montagu-Dunk, instructing them to strictly and diligently look for the author responsible for publishing many weekly seditious papers as well as seize printed pamphlets, charts as well as other materials.

However it was determined by Charles Pratt that both the search as well as the seizure was illegal; since the warrant instructed seizing of all Entick’s papers, both the criminal and the non-criminal ones, in addition to the warrant lacking probable cause to validate the search. Entick, therefore by holding that the law holds that every individual’s property is extremely sacred, and no person can infringe upon his neighbor’s secured place without his permission, set up the English guide that the government is restricted in interfering with one’s private property(Clancy, 2008).

However, back in colonial America, homes did not have similar sanctity like their counterparts in Britain, since legislation had been clearly drafted to permit enforcement of the colonial master’s revenue-gathering policy in regard to customs, till 1750s.The only kind of warrant identified in justice handbooks was the general warrant. This gave the then authorities extreme power in searching for anything, with very limited oversight at any given time. The state of Massachusetts in 1756 passed a legislation that banned general warrants, representing the very first legislation in American history to curtail the enforcement of seizure power.