<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by essxjay:
(Ratified effective December 15, 1791):
Amendment IV
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.</font>
Would searching by forcing or requesting checked bags to be unlocked without owners present, as stated on an MSNBC article, be representative as breaking the 4th Amendment of the US Constitution, if probable cause was found for a reasonable search of these "effects" and "papers" without one's knowledge until after the fact?
And after such search, the owner, now unaware what the party who searched such "effects" or "papers", would not know what personal effect is in the knowledge of the party who searched them until retrieving their property a very far distance away.
An interesting argument. An illegal search, unless the owner was present.