Podcast: The Fourth Amendment and civil liberties
(credit: Victoria Pickering)
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This week, We the People continues its series on “The Candidates and the Constitution,” in which the statements and proposals of Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump are compared to the text and history of the Constitution. (Listen to previous episodes on Article II, Article III, Article V, the First Amendment, and the Second Amendment.)
We turn now to the Fourth Amendment, which begins, “The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated…”
In their campaigns, Clinton and Trump have addressed the tension between individual liberties and national security, with comments about government surveillance, cybersecurity, Edward Snowden, and more. Both candidates have also spoken frequently about criminal justice and the growing movement for policing reform.
Joining We the People to discuss the Fourth Amendment and the 2016 presidential campaign are two leading constitutional scholars.
Tracey Meares is the Walton Hale Hamilton Professor of Law at Yale Law School. Along with Tom Tyler, Meares directs the Justice Collaboratory at Yale, which plays a central role in a new federal initiative to build trust and confidence in the criminal justice system. In December 2014, President Barack Obama named her as a member of his Task Force on 21st Century Policing.
John Stinneford is Professor of Law and Assistant Director of the Criminal Justice Center at the University of Florida Levin College of Law. John contributed to the Center’s Interactive Constitution by writing a series of explainers on the Eighth Amendment with Bryan Stevenson.
This show was engineered by Kevin Kilbourne and produced by Nicandro Iannacci. Research was provided by Lana Ulrich. The host of We the People is Jeffrey Rosen. Special thanks to Tom Donnelly for hosting this week.
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