Search and seizure is a legal procedure used in many civil law and common law legal systems whereby police or other authorities and their agents, who suspect that a crime has been committed, do a search of a person's property and confiscate any relevant evidence to the crime.
Some countries have provisions in their constitutions that provide the public with the right to be free from "unreasonable" search and seizure. This right is generally based on the premise that everyone is entitled to a reasonable right to privacy.
Though interpretation may vary, this right sometimes requires law enforcement to obtain a search warrant before engaging in any form of search and seizure. In cases where evidence is seized in a search, that evidence might be rejected by court procedures, such as with a motion to suppress the evidence under the exclusionary rule.
Read more about Search And Seizure: United States, Figurative or Constructive Searches
Famous quotes containing the words search and/or seizure:
“The house a woman creates is a Utopia. She can’t help it—can’t help trying to interest her nearest and dearest not in happiness itself but in the search for it.”
—Marguerite Duras (b. 1914)
“Shut not so soon; the dull-eyed night
Has not yet begun
To make a seizure on the light,
Or to seal up the sun.”
—Robert Herrick (1591–1674)