Court Review: Volume 38, Issue 4 - Illinois v. Wardlow: The Empowerment of Police, the Weakening of the Fourth Amendment

Authors

Pamela Richardson, Columbus School of Law of the Catholic University of America

Date of this Version

January 2002

Document Type

Article

Comments

Published in Court Review: The Journal of the American Judges Association, 38:4 (2002), pp. 36-40. Copyright © 2002 National Center for State Courts. Used by permission. Online at http://aja.ncsc.dni.us/htdocs/publications.htm.

Abstract

The Fourth Amendment of the United States Constitution protects the right of the people against unreasonable searches and seizures by requiring a probable cause showing in order to obtain a warrant before conducting such searches. Since the United States Supreme Court decided Terry v. Ohio in 1968, however, the words of the Fourth Amendment have been questioned and the rights of the individual challenged. When the Court decided Illinois v. Wardlow in 2000, it was made clear that the words once written to protect all Americans do not pertain to those residing in locations deemed “highcrime areas.”