It is a calm Saturday night, the sky is clear and the stars are out. The house down the street has invited some friends over for a party. There are a few kegs of beer in the basement and the music is playing. All the doors to the house are shut except the one that everyone walks through, and even that door is shut as soon as a person is inside. As the night gets longer, people get drunk and the music gets louder. Not a person at the party stops to think if the police are going to show up, until some one yells, "COPS!" The music comes to a dead silence and no one mumbles a word. About twenty minutes pass by, and someone walks up the basement stairs of the house and shuts the door behind him. A police officer is standing in the door accompanied by four other officers. The officers begin to inspect the perimeter of the house. This scenario is very common in the life of a college student. In the situation described do students know what to do, say, or even how to act when confro!
             nted by one or more police officers at a party? The answer to this question is found with in the Fourth Amendment of the United States Constitution.
             The Fourth Amendment of the Constitution is about search and seizure. The Amendment clearly states that, "The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the person or things to be seized" (Epistein and Walker). This is the constitutional definition of a legal search and seizure. The positive aspects of having this Amendment are of great worth to a college student, especially if you rent an off campus house. It is the right of the student to ask why the police officers are on their property, and what cause the officer(s) have to be on the student...