Book: The Know Your Bill of Rights Book: Don't Lose Your Constitutional Rights--Learn Them!
Quotes of Book: The Know Your Bill of Rights
Massachusetts's search and seizure provision was the work of John Adams, who had been so strongly moved by Otis's monumental speech nearly twenty years earlier. Through Adams, Article XIV of the Massachusetts Declaration of Rights declared: "Every subject has a right to be secure from all unreasonable searches, and seizures of his person, his houses, his papers, and all his possessions. All warrants, therefore, are contrary to this right, if the cause or foundation of them be not previously supported by oath or affirmation; and if the order in the warrant to the civil officer, to make search in suspected places, to arrest one or more suspected persons, or to seize their property, be not accompanied with a special designation of the person or objects of search, arrest, or seizure: and no warrant ought to be issued but in cases and with the formalities, prescribed by the laws. book-quote
