Professor Ed Larson Presents "Search and Seizure in the Founding Era" -- Constitutional Institute at Mount Vernon

September 20, 2018 | Professor Edward J. Larson presented "Search and Seizure in the Founding Era" today at the Fourth Annual Constitutional Institute at George Washington's Mount Vernon. The conference, which takes place in Virginia on September 20-21, is titled "The Use and Abuse of the Fourth Amendment in Law Enforcement and Domestic Surveillance."

From the conference program:

Presented at the Fred W. Smith National Library for the Study of George Washington on the grounds of Mount Vernon, this program will transport you to the very root of American constitutional jurisprudence with a unique opportunity to examine the government's surveillance power from the founding of our nation to today's digital age.

Privacy rights and the need to protect those in the United States from hostile acts are now being brought to the forefront of contemporary jurisprudential thinking in ways our founders never could have imagined. The Courts have increasingly grappled with how to apply the Fourth Amendment: balancing constitutional rights to privacy versus public safety.

The Supreme Court's 2018 decision in Carpenter v. United States established that the government violates the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution by accessing historical records containing the physical locations of cellphones without a search warrant. This is just the tip of the iceberg that will be explored during this year's Institute.