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''New Jersey v. T.L.O.'', 469 U.S. 325 (1985), is a landmark decision of the Supreme Court of the United States which established the standards by which a public school official can search a student in a school environment, and to what extent. The case centered around a student at
Piscataway High School Piscataway High School is a four-year comprehensive community public high school serving students in ninth through twelfth grades from Piscataway in Middlesex County, New Jersey, United States, operating as the lone secondary school of the P ...
in Piscataway, New Jersey, known then only by her initials ''T.L.O.'', who was searched for contraband after she was caught smoking in a school bathroom. She was sent to the principal's office, where the vice principal searched her purse and found marijuana, drug paraphernalia, and documentation of drug sales. She was expelled from the school and charged by police for the paraphernalia found in the search, but she fought the charge on the basis that the search of her purse violated the Fourth Amendment's prohibition against unreasonable
search and seizure Search and seizure is a procedure used in many civil law and common law legal systems by which police or other authorities and their agents, who, suspecting that a crime has been committed, commence a search of a person's property and confisca ...
. The
New Jersey Superior Court The Superior Court is the state court in the U.S. state of New Jersey, with statewide trial and appellate jurisdiction. The New Jersey Constitution of 1947 establishes the power of the New Jersey courts.Jeffrey S. Mandel, New Jersey Appellate Pr ...
affirmed the constitutionality of the search, but the
Supreme Court of New Jersey The Supreme Court of New Jersey is the highest court in the U.S. state of New Jersey. In its current form, the Supreme Court of New Jersey is the final judicial authority on all cases in the state court system, including cases challenging th ...
reversed, holding that the search of her purse was unreasonable. On appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, the Court held that the Fourth Amendment applies to searches conducted by school officials in a school setting. However, school officials do not need to have
probable cause In United States criminal law, probable cause is the standard by which police authorities have reason to obtain a warrant for the arrest of a suspected criminal or the issuing of a search warrant. There is no universally accepted definition o ...
nor obtain a warrant before searching a student. Instead, in order for a search to be justified, school officials must have reasonable suspicion that the student has violated either the law or school rules. Justice
Byron White Byron "Whizzer" Raymond White (June 8, 1917 April 15, 2002) was an American professional football player and jurist who served as an associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court from 1962 until his retirement in 1993. Born and raised in Colo ...
wrote for the six-justice majority that the school's search of T.L.O.'s purse was constitutional, setting a new precedent for school searches and student privacy.


Background

On March 7, 1980, a teacher at
Piscataway High School Piscataway High School is a four-year comprehensive community public high school serving students in ninth through twelfth grades from Piscataway in Middlesex County, New Jersey, United States, operating as the lone secondary school of the P ...
in Piscataway, New Jersey discovered two 14-year-old freshmen smoking in a school bathroom, in violation of school rules. While students were permitted to smoke in designated smoking areas, the bathroom was not one of them. The pair were sent to principal's office, where they were questioned by Vice Principal Theodore Choplick. One of the students admitted to smoking, but the other student, whose initials were ''T.L.O.'', denied having ever smoked in her life. Choplick brought T.L.O. into his private office and demanded to see T.L.O.'s purse, and upon searching it, found a pack of cigarettes and rolling paper in plain view. These findings prompted Choplick to conduct a more thorough search of T.L.O.'s purse, revealing a small amount of marijuana, a
tobacco pipe A tobacco pipe, often called simply a pipe, is a device specifically made to smoke tobacco. It comprises a chamber (the bowl) for the tobacco from which a thin hollow stem (shank) emerges, ending in a mouthpiece. Pipes can range from very simp ...
, an index card with the names of students who owed T.L.O. money, and two letters linking T.L.O. to dealing marijuana. The principal called the police and the girl's mother, who voluntarily drove her to the police station. She was convicted of dealing and use of illicit drugs. She was expelled from the school and fined $1,000. She was charged as a juvenile for the drugs and paraphernalia found in the search.


Opinion of the Court

The Supreme Court of the United States, in a 6–3 decision issued by Justice White, balancing between the legitimate
expectation of privacy Expectation of privacy is a legal test which is crucial in defining the scope of the applicability of the privacy protections of the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution. It is related to, but is not the same as, a ''right to privac ...
of the individual, even a child, and the school's interest in maintaining order and discipline, held for the appellant (the state). According to school officials, they do require a " reasonable suspicion" to perform a search. Her possession of any cigarettes was relevant to whether or not she was being truthful, and since she had been caught in the bathroom and taken directly to the office, it was reasonable to assume she had the cigarettes in her purse. Thus, the vice-principal had reasonable cause to suspect a school rule had been broken, and more than just a "hunch" to search the purse. When the vice-principal was searching for the cigarettes, the drug-related evidence was in plain view. Plain view is an exception to the warrant requirement of the Fourth Amendment. Thus, the reasonable search for cigarettes led to some of the drug related material being discovered, which justified a search (including the zippered compartments inside the bag) resulting in the discovery of the cigarettes and other evidence including a small bag of marijuana and cigarette rolling papers.


Other opinions

In a separate concurring opinion, Justice Powell (joined by Justice O'Connor) stated that while he agreed with the Court's opinion, he felt that students in primary and secondary educational settings should not be afforded the same level of protection for search and seizures as adults and juveniles in non-school settings. Justice Brennan, joined by Justice Marshall, agreed with the majority's conclusions about the applicability of the Fourth Amendment to school teachers but dissented from the new standard set down by the Court, which he felt was a departure from the traditional "
probable cause In United States criminal law, probable cause is the standard by which police authorities have reason to obtain a warrant for the arrest of a suspected criminal or the issuing of a search warrant. There is no universally accepted definition o ...
" approach. Brennan went on to argue that for the government to justify a
warrantless search A search warrant is a court order that a magistrate or judge issues to authorize law enforcement officers to conduct a search of a person, location, or vehicle for evidence of a crime and to confiscate any evidence they find. In most countries, ...
, some "special governmental interest" outside of standard law enforcement interests was required. This idea was later adopted by the Court as the
special needs doctrine The "special needs" exception is an exception to the Fourth Amendment’s general requirement that government searches be supported by a warrant and probable cause. The exception applies when (1) the government conducts programmatic searches that ...
.


See also

* List of United States Supreme Court cases, volume 469 * '' Vernonia School District 47J v. Acton,'' 515 U.S. 649 (1995) * '' Board of Education v. Earls,'' 536 U.S. 822 (2002) * '' Safford Unified School District v. Redding,'' 557 U.S. 364 (2009) * Special needs exception * ''
Terry v. Ohio ''Terry v. Ohio'', 392 U.S. 1 (1968), was a landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision in which the Court ruled that it is constitutional for American police to "stop and frisk" a person they reasonably suspect to be armed and involved in a crime. Sp ...
,'' 392 U.S. 1 (1968) *'' Cohen v. California,'' 403 U.S. 15 (1971)


References


External links

*
Summary on LandmarkCases.org
{{DEFAULTSORT:New Jersey v. T. L. O. United States Supreme Court cases United States Supreme Court cases of the Burger Court United States Fourth Amendment case law Student rights case law in the United States United States controlled substances case law 1985 in United States case law 1985 in education Piscataway, New Jersey Cannabis in New Jersey Education in Middlesex County, New Jersey Smoking in the United States