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INTRODUCTION ......................................................................................................979 I. THE STRUCTURE OF THE FOURTH AMENDMENT AND ITS DISPUTED HISTORICAL MEANING...............................................................................................................982 II. JOHN ADAMS AND THE HISTORICAL CONTEXT: 1761 TO 1780 ..........................989
A. HISTORICAL CONTEXT .............................................................................989 B. JOHN ADAMS AND THE WRITS OF ASSISTANCE CASE .................................992 C. THE ENGLISH GENERAL WARRANT CASES ..............................................979 D. JOHN ADAMS’S LIBRARY .......................................................................1012 E. ADAMS AS LITIGATOR AND OBSERVER ..................................................1018 F. ADAMS AS DELEGATE TO THE CONTINENTAL CONGRESS.......................1026
III. 1776 TO 1791: THE EVOLUTION OF SEARCH AND SEIZURE PROVISIONS ........1027 A. ARTICLE 14 AND OTHER EARLY SEARCH AND SEIZURE PROVISIONS.....1027 B. THE CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION OF 1787 .......................................1029 C. THE CONFEDERATION CONGRESS ..........................................................1030 D. THE RATIFICATION OF THE CONSTITUTION BY THE STATES...................1031 E. THE DRAFTING OF THE FOURTH AMENDMENT .......................................1044
IV. ADAMS’S VIEWS AND INFLUENCE..................................................................1052 CONCLUSION........................................................................................................1060
INTRODUCTION
Courts and scholars seeking the original understanding of the Fourth Amendment have confronted two fundamental questions: what practices was the amendment designed to regulate; and how should a constitution regulate such practices? To inform the answers to those questions, this Article offers a new perspective of, and information on, the historical record regarding the framing of the amendment. It also presents for the first time a detailed examination of John Adams’s fundamental influence on the language and structure of the amendment and his knowledge of, and views on, how to regulate searches and seizures.
Most of the language and structure of the Fourth Amendment was primarily the work of one man, John Adams. Adams was an important person for many other reasons, including as the second President of the United States. His life is the subject of many biographies; his letters, works, and extensive writings are a rich source of material. Less studied and understood, however, are his knowledge of, and views on, search and seizure and his role in formulating the principles to regulate those governmental actions. Upon examination, Adams stands out in that era as having profound opportunities to examine search and seizure practices and as having the most important role in formulating the language and structure of the Fourth Amendment. If the intent of the framers is a fundamental consideration in
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