Privacy Rights Of The Homeless Essay

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Haylie Gutierrez Monica Jayroe March 18, 2014 Constitutional Law Privacy Rights of the Homeless There are certain rights that every citizen of the United States of America are entitled to and as a society we have come to expect that they will always be there and protected. Unless you have emigrated from a foreign country that does not hold the same rights, then these rights are something that you have always known. You were born with them and unless you have been in specific circumstances, then you have always had them. Most of society assumes that in our country everyone is afforded many basic rights including the right of protection against unreasonable searches and seizures. For many homeless people living in the United States, this does not hold true. They often are subject random sweeps of known homeless areas, seizure of items during these sweeps, search and seizure of containers, documents, effects, persons and any makeshift home they may have constructed. The federal courts have yet to make any firm decisions with regards to the privacy rights of the homeless, but with cases of homeless privacy violation making their way towards the headlines it won’t be long before the courts will have to answer, either in favor of the homeless privacy rights or against them. The fourth Amendment states that “the right of the people to be secured in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated.” Understanding what constitutes a search and a seizure, along with what would make a search and a seizure unconstitutional is necessary to determining what rights are to be afford to the homeless and when those rights have been violated. For an action to constitute search activi... ... middle of paper ... ...to try to right the wrongful actions that have been taken against the homeless, through the backdoor of comparing homelessness to camping. Society needs to stop distancing itself and ignoring the fact that homelessness exists. Treating anyone that is homeless with lesser rights then that of a non-homeless person is equivalent to saying that they are a lesser person. This is not helping the issue, in fact it is only making it worse. As stated by the court that decided California v. Greenwood, failure to acknowledge a reasonable expectation of privacy for those who have no choice but to perform traditionally private acts in public areas would result in laws being unequally applied to the rich and the poor (Homeless on public ROW). The United States should be a country where people join together to help those struggling out, not one that kicks them when they are down.

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