One of the least compelling arguments that can be made for a warrantless intrution is the phrase, "if you have nothing to hide, you should not mind us taking a look around." The sister argument that I often hear about new laws that invade our privacy is, "if you have done nothing wrong, it won't affect you." Both of these statements imply a naiveness on the part of the speaker.
First of all, everyone has something to hide. It may not be illegal or immoral, it may just be embarrassing, like a sink full of dirty dishes or a soiled pair of underwear on top of the clothes hamper. The founding fathers recognized that fact and included the fourth amendment to the constitution in the bill of rights. I like to think of it as the sink full of dirty dishes amendment. If authorities suspect that you have something illegal on your property, they can go before a judge and get a search warrant. If they just don't like you because your son beat their son out for a position on the basketball team, they can keep their ass off your property.
As for the argument that innocent people have nothing to fear from the law, that is just not true. With troubling frequency, I see news reports of someone who has been wrongly accused and convicted of a crime and is being released. Often the release is due to DNA evidence, but many times it is due to the uncovering of procecutoral misconduct. Police under pressure to clear cases and government procecutors hoping for promotion bend the rules to get convictions.
Several years ago, when I worked at a local public utility, I often told my coworkers that it was preferable for ten guilty persons to go free rather than one innocent person be convicted and imprisoned. Many of my coworkers disagreed with me. Some characterized my statement as being leftist, socialist, communist and even athiest. I suspect that if they were wrongly convicted of a crime and sentenced to prison, they would quickly recognize the truth in my statement.
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