Also known as: unreasonable search and seizure · unreasonable searches · unreasonable seizures · Fourth Amendment search · 4th Amendment seizure
Written by attorneys — see sources below.
A constitutional guarantee securing persons, houses, papers, and effects against government intrusions lacking probable cause supported by oath or affirmation and a particular description of the place to be searched and the persons or things to be seized.
Uriel Urban checked into a hotel and locked his room. Federal agents directed hotel staff to unlock the door and search his luggage without obtaining a warrant or showing probable cause. The agents seized documents from the room. Urban later sued the agents for violating his protection against unreasonable searches and seizures.
Ursula Ung returned home to find federal narcotics agents had entered without a warrant and ransacked her residence. The agents seized personal papers during the search. Ung filed a civil action seeking money damages directly from the agents for the violation of her protection against unreasonable searches and seizures.
On the morning of November 26, 1965, agents of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics entered Webster Bivens's apartment in the Bronx. The agents broke open the door, handcuffed Bivens in front of his wife and young children, and thoroughly searched the apartment. They then transported Bivens to the federal courthouse in Brooklyn, where he was interrogated, booked, and subjected to a visual strip search. Several days later Bivens was released on his own recognizance, and he was never indicted or prosecuted for any offense. Bivens filed suit in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York against the six agents in their individual capacities. His complaint sought fifteen thousand dollars in damages from each agent and alleged that the arrest and search were effected without a warrant, that unreasonable force was employed, and that the arrest was made without probable cause. Bivens claimed to have suffered great humiliation, embarrassment, and mental suffering as a result of the agents' conduct. The District Court dismissed the complaint on the ground that it failed to state a cause of action. The United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit affirmed the dismissal. The Supreme Court of the United States granted certiorari to review the judgment.
View caseUmar Usmani and his spouse stored private medical documents in a locked file cabinet at home. State officials entered the residence without a warrant and seized the documents during an investigation into personal health choices. Usmani challenged the seizure as an unreasonable search and seizure infringing protected privacy interests.
Unity Underhill operated a medical clinic where patient files were kept in secured cabinets. State agents entered the clinic without a warrant and seized records related to private medical decisions. Underhill asserted that the seizure constituted an unreasonable search and seizure violating constitutional protections.
Ulrike Ulrich was arrested without probable cause and officers searched her person and belongings incident to the arrest. The search yielded incriminating items later used at trial. Ulrich moved to suppress the evidence on the ground that it resulted from an unreasonable search and seizure.
Urban Utley used a mobile device to communicate with his spouse. Government agents obtained his location data and message contents without a warrant through a private company. Utley claimed the acquisition amounted to an unreasonable search and seizure of his protected effects.
The government must demonstrate probable cause supported by oath or affirmation and must particularly describe the place to be searched and the persons or things to be seized.
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No. When a private party has already searched a package and revealed its contents, a subsequent police inspection that does not exceed the scope of the private search is not a Fourth Amendment search.
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Yes. A plaintiff may bring a civil action for damages against federal agents who violate the protection against unreasonable searches and seizures even without an express statutory cause of action.
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…terms of the taking of property; the freedom of speech, press, and religion; the right to keep and bear arms; the freedom from unreasonable searches and seizures; and so on. It is a rational continuum which, broadly speaking, includes a freedom from all substantial arbitrary impositions and purposeless restraints . . . and which also recognizes,…