This Assignment asks you to look at the differences between the Constitution and constitutional law, by looking at two Supreme Court Cases.
Look at the text of the Fourth Amendment. Does the amendment define exactly what an “unreasonable search” is, or does the U.S. Supreme Court have to interpret the phrase when it decides cases?
What happened in Olmstead v. United States, 277 U.S. 438 (1928)? What are the facts of the case? Who is Mr. Olmstead and what happened to him? Why did the Supreme Court conclude that the government could listen to Mr. Olmstead’s phone calls without a warrant? What does physical presence have to do with the Supreme Court’s analysis? How did the Supreme Court define the term “search?” Does this definition mean that listening to a phone conversation was not a “search” under the Fourth Amendment?
