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How important is the Fourth Amendment? I'd put it up there with the First as being the most important of all of them.
The second part of the question troubles me. I don't think that the right is ever "superceded" except by an unconstitutional act. The government has not only the right but the duty to conduct searches. I don't think any of the families of the victims of the BTK killer would argue that searches were innappropriate ways of bringing him to justice. Nor would the people of Tennessee whose governor sold pardons to convicted murderers in the late 70's.
Of the examples you gave, I'm not familiar with the Maye case. From the story posted, it looks like more like another case of a black man being railroaded in Mississippi than a 4th Amendment issue since the warrant wasn't for his home and it was incorrectly served. The warrant played little or no role in the misfortune.
The Scarfo case is something that I have been following, although for different reasons completely. I agree that the open-ended warrant is troubling, but it also seems pretty clear that this was a bad guy. Not that good or bad should play any role in whether or not a warrant is issued, but the guy did have prior convictions. The only thing that is a problem here is the permission to enter as many times as necessary portion of the warrant, but the rest of it seems totally reasonable. He was suspected of loan sharking, which is a crime.
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"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." - B. Franklin
"There ought to be limits to freedom." - George W. Bush
"We have met the enemy and he is us." - Pogo
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