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Who Should Decide? Separation of Powers Badge- Florida v. Jardines

March 14th, 2013

The Fourth Amendment, or Amendment IV of the United States Constitution is the section of the Bill of Rights that protects people from being searched or having their belongings taken away from them without any good reason. If the government or any law enforcement official wants to  search or take their things away, he or she must have a very good reason to do so and they must get permission to perform the search from a judge. I think that the judge must know a great deal about a case to give permission to someone to come into a persons home and search through their belongings. That judge is going to say whether or not that person has enough evidence to search through someone else’s belongings. The judge makes the final decision based on what’s best, and that judge doesn’t need Congress to legislate the standards that guide them in deciding and doing their job. Congress is better off staying back and letting the professional judge do his or her job.
Although Congress shouldn’t butt in on the standards that guide the judges in deciding Fourth Amendment cases, but Congress needs to say whether or not new technologies and procedures may or may not be used for law enforcement.  The judge might know what going on with cases, but I’m not sure if they will know about technology, that is constantly changing. That’s why Congress is there to help regulate and enforce these procedures. It gives the judges more time focusing on the important cases then worrying about technology.