Reference no: EM133616527
Discussion Post
The 4th Amendment addresses UNREASONABLE SEARCHES to Persons, Houses, Papers and Effects. The threshold question one must answer before the 4th Amendment is triggered is whether there was a government action that led to a search of a person, house, paper or effect. Determining what is a search requires asking whether a Constitutionally protected area was physically intruded and determining whether the person "searched" had a reasonable expectation of privacy in the person, home, or thing searched.
Although law enforcement can walk around your open property, whcih is not a house, your "curtilage" is protected. Curtilage is that space immediately adjacent to your home where intimate activities may take place - like your porch or your green house. Even those spaces may be viewed by the public, for instance from the air, a neighbor's home, or right of way. The Supreme Court determined that what you knowingly expose to the public is not entitled to 4th Amendment protection.
Answer the following five questions:
• Question I: Can the government without a warrant ask your cellphone provider to provide historical cell-site records for your personal cellphone that give the police your GPS whereabouts for the last 60 days?
• Question II: Can the government without a warrant go to your bank and get your private bank records?