1. New Jersey v. T.L.O.
469 US 325 (1985)
By Sage Miller

2. What is the constitutional issue involved in the case?
The young girl in this case believed she was the victim, and didn’t need searched. She believed the 4th Amendment was going against her.

3. Who were the parties involved in the case?
TLO is Tracy Lois Odem
New Jersey School

4. When and where did the case take place?
The case was in
The case was in New Jersey.

5. What events lead up to the case going before the Supreme Court?
In a New Jersey high school, a teacher found two girls smoking in the bathroom and took them to the principal's office. One girl admitted to smoking but the other, known as T.L.O., denied it. The principal demanded to see the girl's purse and found evidence that she was also selling marijuana at school. The people believed the search was going against their 4th amendment, and were not satisfied with the rulings.

6. What Court or courts heard this before getting to the Supreme Court?
Juvenile court was first
Second was Appellate Division
Third New Jersey supreme court
Forth supreme court

7. Historical Context: what was happening in the world that this case needed to be tried?
His have never happened before. First, the Court ruled that public school officials are subject to the Fourth Amendment's prohibition against unreasonable searches and seizures because they act under the authority of the state.

8. What was the Supreme Court’s ruling / decision?
New Jersey Supreme Court, which later found that the search was unreasonable and the evidence could not be used. New Jersey and the school had met a "reasonableness" standard for conducting such searches at school. The high court said school administrators don't need to have a search warrant or probable cause before conducting a search because students have a reduced expectation of privacy when in school.

9. What was the reasoning given by the Supreme Court for making their decision?
The supreme court decided that T.L.O. was innocent, because the speech was made because the principal was suspicious of cigarettes not weed.

10. Opposing viewpoints
Schools are places where we inculcate the values essential to the meaningful exercise of rights and responsibilities by a self-governing citizenry. If the Nation's students can be convicted through the use of arbitrary methods destructive of personal liberty, they cannot help but feel that they have been dealt with unfairly. The application of the exclusionary rule in criminal proceedings arising from illegal school searches makes an important statement to young people that "our society attaches serious consequences to a violation of constitutional rights," and that this is a principle of "liberty and justice for all".

11. How do you feel about the ruling? Why?
I believe this ruling was incorrect because you are in a public place, you are a miner, and in school. A higher authority should be able to search you at any point and be able to search for one thing and find anything.

12. Majority Opinion
In 1985, the Supreme Court, by a 6-3 margin, ruled that New Jersey and the school had met a "reasonableness" standard for conducting such searches at school.

13. Similar court cases
At the end of June 2009, the Supreme Court decided Safford Unified School District No. 1 v. Redding,' a case involving the strip search of a thirteen-year-old girl at an Arizona middle school.