United States. Human rights / constitutional. Constitutional provision
Fourth AmendmentUnited States Constitution, Fourth Amendment
In force
§1Summary
- Synopsis
Protects people against unreasonable searches and seizures by government and generally requires a warrant supported by probable cause. Courts apply a 'reasonable expectation of privacy' test, with the third-party doctrine limiting protection for data held by service providers.
- Key themes
- Unique features
Binds only government actors, not private companies; there is no general constitutional right to data protection at federal level, unlike Article 8 of the EU Charter.
- SaaS relevance
Shapes when US law enforcement needs a warrant versus a subpoena to obtain customer data held by a SaaS provider.
§2Obligations
- Extraterritorial
- Limited
- Breach notification
- None
- DPO
- No
- Cross-border transfers
- None
- Maximum penalty
- Exclusion of evidence; civil claims against officials (Bivens/42 USC 1983)
§3Dates
- Key dates
- Adopted
- In force
- Ratified with the Bill of Rights 1791; Carpenter v. United States (2018) extended warrant requirement to historical cell-site location data.
§4Text and authority
- Text
- Authoritative text constitution.congress.gov
- Authority
- Federal and state courts (no regulator)
§5Where it applies
- Domestic law of
- United States
- Also applies in
- Alabama
- Alaska
- Arizona
- Arkansas
- California
- Colorado
- Connecticut
- Delaware
- District of Columbia
- Florida
- Georgia
- Guam
- Hawaii
- Idaho
- Illinois
- Indiana
- Iowa
- Kansas
- Kentucky
- Louisiana
- Maine
- Maryland
- Massachusetts
- Michigan
- Minnesota
- Mississippi
- Missouri
- Montana
- Nebraska
- Nevada
- New Hampshire
- New Jersey
- New Mexico
- New York
- North Carolina
- North Dakota
- Ohio
- Oklahoma
- Oregon
- Pennsylvania
- Puerto Rico
- Rhode Island
- South Carolina
- South Dakota
- Tennessee
- Texas
- US Virgin Islands
- Utah
- Vermont
- Virginia
- Washington
- West Virginia
- Wisconsin
- Wyoming
§6Sources and verification
- Sources consulted
- Verification
High confidence.
Does not apply to private-sector processing.