The 4th Amendment addresses UNREASONABLE SEARCHES to Persons, Houses, Papers and Effects. The threshold question one must answer before the 4th Amendment is triggered is whether there was a government action that led to a search of a person, house, paper or effect. Determining what is a search requires asking whether a Constitutionally protected area was physically intruded and determining whether the person “searched” had a reasonable expectation of privacy in the person, home, or thing searched.
Although law enforcement can walk around your open property, whcih is not a house, your “curtilage” is protected. Curtilage is that space immediately adjacent to your home where intimate activities may take place – like your porch or your green house. Even those spaces may be viewed by the public, for instance from the air, a neighbor’s home, or right of way. The Supreme Court determined that what you knowingly expose to the public is not entitled to 4th Amendment protection.
Answer the following five questions:
QUESTION ONE: Can the government without a warrant ask your cellphone provider to provide historical cell-site records for your personal cellphone that give the police your GPS whereabouts for the last 60 days?
QUESTION TWO: Can the government without a warrant go to your bank and get your private bank records?