What Is The Fourth Amendment Trying To Protect?
Obviously, the Fourth Amendment is trying to protect "the people" from unreasonable searches and seizures (mainly warrantless searches and seizures not supported by probable cause). Initially, Fourth Amendment jurisprudence centered around the concept of protecting private property. This concept was firmly rooted by the late 1800s, as evidenced by this quote: "The great end for which men entered into society was to secure their property. That rights is preserved sacred and incommunicable in all instances where it has not been taken away or abridged by some public law for the good of the whole. . . . By the laws of England, every invasion of private property, be it ever so minute, is a trespass."
This, of course, meshes well with the vitriolic hatred that the Framers espoused towards Writs of Assistance. These writs were used by the government to take property (albeit, the property was technically contraband). Thus, one can easily imagine the context in which the Constitution was amended by the Fourth Amendment.
However, society has changed and courts began to address the change in technology. After all, what property right are protected against wiretapping, for example. If that were the case, then the government would essentially have unbounded discretion to monitor phone calls because no property right would be protected.
Now, the Fourth Amendment is said to "protect people, not places" and an actual, physical trespass is no longer required. Thus, the Fourth Amendment now protects your privacy and any Fourth Amendment violation must offend society's reasonable expectation of privacy in that place or thing that is the subject of the lawsuit. Is the area one in which there is a
REASONABLE expectation to be free from government intrusion.