Do We Need a New Fourth Amendment?
Privacy at Risk: The New Government Surveillance and the Fourth Amendment. By Christopher Slobogin. Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press. 2007. Pp. xi, 306. $37.50.
Imagine the year is 2035. The election of Barack Obama in 2008 triggered a quarter century of Democratic Party dominance in American politics. Over time, Reagan and Bush appointees to the Supreme Court retired and were replaced by much more liberal successors. The new Supreme Court majority, led by Chief Justice Harold Koh, is now eager to make some waves. The Justices have set their eyes on the Fourth Amendment: They want to design a new Fourth Amendment that will match their civil libertarian privacy preferences. They aim to restore what they see as the Court’s rightful place at the center of American privacy law, and they are looking for a method that combines some traditional principles with a new set of innovations.