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Originally Posted by BigBen
I want my government to keep out of my business. ...
But the founders also wanted the government to stay the HELL out of your private business.
What if my private business hurts the public? Shouldn't the government stop it? Only if they know about it, which they can't, if I keep things private.
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Again, I agree. However, if your private business hurts the public, one would assume that the injury would be discovered one way or another. Once it's discovered, then that's the time to use the warrant to explore the depths of your depravity. If, for instance, I'm a serial killer murdering only hobos/transients and no one ever discovers the bodies, there's no reason to suspect me of a crime and therefore no need for a warrant. It's my "private" business. However, if someone discovers one of the bodies along with my videotape confession, a warrant is certainly justified to find out what other evidence I've got lying around the house.
Just because you're committing a currently undiscovered crime doesn't give you any constitutionally guaranteed expectation of privacy. If no one ever discovers the crime, that doesn't make you any less of a criminal.
As far as your example of the murderer that gets off, I think that its exactly what the Founders anticipated. If I commit a murder, and you're investigating it, you need a warrant to search my home. That's fine an dandy, but let's posit that I left the bloody glove and videotape in my storage locker down the block. It's a completely separate premises and even an innocent third party. You absolutely have to have a warrant to search that storage locker. I may be guilty as sin, but you, as the government, violated my rights in order to prove it. What other rights are you going to violate to prove my guilt? What if I'm not actually guilty, but you want to send me away so that you can date my wife and you've manufactured evidence? I agree that it's very unfortunate that sometimes the guilty get to go free because of procedural errors, but it's absolutely critical that warrants be issued to keep the government from trampling on all of us. I would rather see a few guilty folks go free than one innocent person go to jail because no one bothered with a warrant.