New Jersey Supreme Court Cases - Assignment Example

The state argued that her Fourth Amendment rights were not violated. The state argued that unreasonable searches and seizures had not been conducted against her but were by the law (McInnis, 175-176).

The Supreme Court 1985 overturned the ruling of the New Jersey Supreme Court. The court stated that the school and New Jersey had reasonable standards for conducting searches at school.

The Supreme Court argued that based on what the school administrators said, they needed to maintain discipline and order at school. T.L.O. possession of cigarettes was enough to determine if she was truthful as she was caught in the bathroom and then taken to the office. That was reasonable to assume that there were cigarettes in her purse. The deputy principal, therefore, had enough reasons to suspect rules had been broken prompting a search immediately. As the deputy principal searched for the cigarettes, he noted the evidence of drugs was in plain view. A condition where the evidence is in plain view gives an exception to the Fourth Amendment. The reasonable search for drugs led to the discovery of drug-related materials. The search further continued to reveal the cigarette rolling papers and the bag of marijuana (Bosher, Cate, & Richards, 3-5).

The case followed the constitutional requirements where personal rights particularly the Fourth Amendment should not be violated and at the same time, social order is maintained. Following the right procedures with bring sanity to school environments.