A proposed amendment to Virginia’s Constitution about unreasonable searches and seizures is before the General Assembly. It is a Fourth Amendment for the digital age. It also cures two wayward Supreme Court decisions and would protect people’s backyards and fields from snooping by government drones.

The Fourth Amendment protects our rights to be secure in our private, personal and even most intimate property from government invasion and trespass unless the search and seizure is made because of objective suspicion that the law has been broken. It is what separates America from a police state. Still, Gallup polls show Americans’ fear of their own government is at record levels. Only through good law enforcement on law enforcement itself is government prevented from becoming totalitarian.