Legal Question in Constitutional Law in Wisconsin
What does the fourth amendment describe as a reasonable search
Asked on 11/03/15, 8:43 am
1 Answer from Attorneys
Edward Hoffman
Law Offices of Edward A. Hoffman
The Fourth Amendment forbids unreasonable searches, but it doesn't say how to decide what's reasonable. The reasonableness of a given search will depend on the circumstances. To illustrate: a police officer searching a person for weapons during a traffic stop is very different from a group of officers searching a warehouse for drugs as part of an ongoing investigation.
Case law offers a great deal of guidance about what is or isn't reasonable in many situations. But there is no set formula, either in the Fourth Amendment or anywhere else.
Answered on 11/03/15, 11:04 am