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Defending the Constitution
zation in time of war, was bound up with memories of British soldiers
who were quartered in American houses during the War of Independence. It is an indication of a desire, in 1789, to protect civilians from military bullying. This is the least-invoked provision of the Bill of Rights, and
the Supreme Court has never had occasion to interpret or apply it.
The Fourth Amendment: Search and Seizure
This is a requirement for search warrants when the public authority decides to search individuals or their houses, or to seize their property in
connection with some legal action or investigation. In general, any search
without a warrant is unreasonable. Under certain conditions, however, no
warrant is necessary—as when the search is incidental to a lawful arrest.
Before engaging in a search, the police must appear before a magistrate and, under oath, prove that they have good cause to believe that a
search should be made. The warrant must specify the place to be searched
and the property to be seized. This requirement is an American version of
the old English principle that ‘‘Every man’s house is his castle.’’ In recent
decades, courts have extended the protections of this amendment to require warrants for the search and seizure of intangible property, such as
conversations recorded through electronic eavesdropping.
The Fifth Amendment: Rights of Persons
Here we have a complex of old rights at law that were intended to protect
people from arbitrary treatment by the possessors of power, especially in
actions at law. The common law assumes that a person is innocent until
he is proven guilty. This amendment reasserts the ancient requirement
that if a person is to be tried for a major crime, he must first be in