New Jersey v TLO Trevor B. & Akilia R.

Facts about the case : In 1980, a teacher at Piscataway in NJ discovered two girl smoking in a restroom This was a violation of the schools rules T.L.O was one of the girls (freshman and 14 years of age); Choplick escorted her to the office and searched her purse - purse contained a small amount of marijuana, cigarettes, a pipe, empty plastic bags, dollar bills, list of students that owed her money, and letters that implicated T.L.O

Question Raised Does the exclusionary rule apply to searches conducted by school officials in public schools? T.L.O. argues that her 4 th Amendment right was violated - 6 – 3 (for the school; New Jersey)

Court Decision 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 4th Amendment. Thus, the reasonable search for cigarettes led to some of the drug related material being discovered "Today's decision sanctions school officials to conduct full scale searches on a 'reasonableness' standard whose only definite content is that it is not the same test as the 'probable cause' standard found in the text of the Fourth Amendment. In adopting this unclear, unprecedented, and unnecessary departure from generally Fourth Amendment standards, the Court carves out a broad exception to standards that this Court has developed over years of considering Fourth Amendment problems. Its decision is supported neither by precedent nor even by a fair application of the 'Balancing test of power' it proclaims in this very opinion."