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New law review article: ?The Bilateral Fourth Amendment and the Duties of Law-Abiding Persons?

By John Wesley Hall, Jr.

The Bilateral Fourth Amendment and the Duties of Law-Abiding Persons by L. Rush Atkinson V of N.Y.U. School of Law, forthcoming in the Georgetown Law Journal, on SSRN. The Abstract: The Fourth Amendment protects the innocent only from “unreasonable” searches. In lieu of the limited nature of this constitutional safeguard, law abiders consistently take precautions to avoid government searches. This Article considers why constitutional jurisprudence limits the protection of the innocent to “unreasonable” searches, thereby forcing them to alter their behavior. The most satisfying answer derives from an often overlooked fact: Searches of innocent persons are often “bilateral accidents,” meaning that both the innocent suspect and the police can affect the likelihood of an erroneous search occurring...continue to full post

Full post as published by Fourth Amendment on September 16, 2010 (boomark / email).