Why the Principal Can Search Your Purse | New Jersey v. T. L. O.

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In episode 52 of Supreme Court Briefs, two students get caught smoking in the high school restroom, and one denies it, so the principal searches her purse. #supremecourtbriefs #newjerseyvtlo #apgov

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Produced by Matt Beat. All images by Matt Beat, found in the public domain, or used under fair use guidelines. Music: "Voyage" by Density and Time.

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Jeff Barton

Piscataway, New Jersey

March 7, 1980

A teacher catches two students smoking in a bathroom of Piscataway High School. Since smoking in the bathroom perhaps obviously went against school rules, the teacher took the two girls to the Principal’s office. Assistant Vice Principal Theodore Choplick interrogated the two girls. One of them admitted to smoking. The other girl, a 14-year old freshman later known simply by her initials to protect her privacy, T.L.O., denied that she had been smoking.

Choplick thought T.L.O. was lying, of course. He forced her to come into his office so he could search her purse. Inside the purse, he found a pack of cigarettes. Next to the cigarettes, in plain view, were rolling papers, which he thought might be used for marijuana, so he kept searching the purse. He also found a pipe, empty plastic bags, a bunch of $1 bills rolled up together, an index card that apparently listed students who owed T.L.O. money, and even two letters seeming to show that T.L.O. was dealing marijuana.

Choplick reported what he found to the police, giving what he found in the purse to them as evidence. T.L.O. later voluntarily confessed to police that she had been selling marijuana at the high school. Based on the confession and seized evidence, the state of New Jersey charged T.L.O. with possession of marijuana in the Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court of Middlesex County. However, her lawyer argued the evidence from the purse shouldn’t be allowed in court, as it was obtained illegally since this went against the Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. That’s a law known as the “exclusionary rule,” by the way. The Court allowed the evidence to be used anyway, and found her guilty, sentencing her to probation for one year. She was also fined $1,000 and expelled from school.

But T.L.O. appealed to the Superior Court of New Jersey. But it agreed with the lower court, saying the exclusionary rule did not apply to school officials and they could certainly search a student’s personal property.

So T.L.O. appealed again, this time to the New Jersey Supreme Court, who reversed the lower decision and sided with T.L.O. It argued the Fourth Amendment does apply to searches and seizures made by school officials in public schools.

So this time New Jersey appealed, and the Supreme Court agreed to hear oral arguments on March 28, 1984, and then again on October 2, 1984. The big question was “does the exclusionary rule apply to searches conducted by school officials in public schools?”