The following excerpt is from U.S. v. Place, 660 F.2d 44 (2nd Cir. 1981):
At the outset, review of a few relevant constitutional principles is helpful. The Fourth Amendment protects not only "persons" but their "effects" against "unreasonable" government "seizures." With rare exceptions the seizure of a person or his effects is deemed per se "unreasonable" unless a warrant has first been obtained from a neutral magistrate upon a showing of probable cause. Katz v. United States, 389 U.S. 347, 357, 88 S.Ct. 507, 514, 19 L.Ed.2d 576 (1967).
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