In this session, students will examine the historical context and the drafting of the Fourth Amendment. Amendment Four to the Constitution was ratified on December 15, 1791.It protects the American people from unreasonable searches and seizures. The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated. Students write an argument about a Fourth Amendment case, and, as a team, present their arguments orally. Amendment. For students for whom reading comprehension is a concern it may be helpful to ask students to write the amendment in their own words. The main flaw with the fourth amendment is the weasel words phrase "unreasonable searches and seizures". My second context clue is the kind of power the Fourth Amendment was meant to curb. Founding-era officials lacked freestanding search power. The essence of a provision forbidding the acquisition of evidence in a certain way is that not merely evidence so acquired.