The 4th amendment protects against unreasonable search and seizure. The issue is what's reasonable and unreasonable. Those change with the situation just like what's free speech. You can't yell fire in a crowded theater. You can search a building for someone if you're in hot pursuit without a warrant when under ordinary circumstances it would require a warrant. Your luggage can be opened and inspected by customs without a warrant when you are entering or leaving the country. Your vehicle can be searched when entering and leaving the building. If you're driving across the country they can't search your luggage or car without a warrant (with exceptions)
Unreasonable means no warrant. Reasonable means that they get a warrant and had better be able to back it up.
BTW, you can yell fire in a theater. In fact, there are times that you should. If there happens not to be a fire, then that is a different issue. That's a misuse of your right to free speech and you can be charged.
Exigent circumstances do allow police to enter a building if they hear a cry for help or are chasing a suspect and he just entered the building. That searching would not include anyplace that a person could not hide in. But neither of these situations are what we are discussing.
Forget your lawbooks for a minute. I've acknowledged that the 'law' might say something different. I'm asking you to read the 4th carefully. My reading doesn't require that you torture or twist the words. The Founders intended that the government jump through hoops to search you or your effects -- even in scary times. If you want to change that, amend the Constitution.
I've just been looking over your series of exchanges with airedale on this thread and wanted to add my own thoughts, albeit three weeks late. I appreciate what you're saying about "put the law books down for a second and think", but I would suggest going back and re-reading the fourth Amendment in the following way...
The Actual Fourth Amendment | 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 persons or things to be seized. |
Badray's Fourth Amendment | The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against warrantless 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 persons or things to be seized. |
I did that to emphasize the fact that the Fourth Amendment does not guarantee your right to a warrant, it only guarantees your right to reasonableness. Note that the only reference to a warrant in the Fourth Amendment is only for purpose of describing its form, not its requirement.
So where did this fiction that reasonableness-equals-warrant come from? It came from the fact that since 99.9% of the cases do in fact require a warrant, everyone just presumes that it must be a 100% requirement. It's not, not in law, not in history, and not in reason nor logic.
Just something to think about...