The Fourth Amendment in an Age of Surveillance

This book is an originalist rereading of the Fourth Amendment that reveals when and how contemporary surveillance technologies should be subject to constitutional regulation.

David Gray (Author)

9781107133235, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 24 April 2017

314 pages
23.5 x 15.8 x 2.1 cm, 0.58 kg

'This book is a welcome and informative contribution to the public debate about surveillance - a debate that will lastingly shape how we live together and how we understand privacy and liberty.' Matthew Feeney, The Weekly Standard

The Fourth Amendment is facing a crisis. New and emerging surveillance technologies allow government agents to track us wherever we go, to monitor our activities online and offline, and to gather massive amounts of information relating to our financial transactions, communications, and social contacts. In addition, traditional police methods like stop-and-frisk have grown out of control, subjecting hundreds of thousands of innocent citizens to routine searches and seizures. In this work, David Gray uncovers the original meaning of the Fourth Amendment to reveal how its historical guarantees of collective security against threats of 'unreasonable searches and seizures' can provide concrete solutions to the current crisis. This important work should be read by anyone concerned with the ongoing viability of one of the most important constitutional rights in an age of increasing government surveillance.

Introduction: the dangers of surveillance
1. Our age of surveillance
2. The Fourth Amendment in the twentieth century
3. Some competing proposals
4. Fourth Amendment remedies as rights
5. Constitutional remedies
6. The Fourth Amendment in an age of surveillance
Conclusion: our Fourth Amendment utopia.

Subject Areas: Privacy law [LNDC2]