What is the test for relying on a minor's probation search condition to uphold the legality of a search by a probation officer?

California, United States of America


The following excerpt is from Tyrell J., In re, 32 Cal.Rptr.2d 33, 8 Cal.4th 68, 876 P.2d 519 (Cal. 1994):

As I mentioned at the outset, the first issue this court must address is whether the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution permits the prosecution to rely on a minor's probation search condition to uphold the legality of a search by an officer who did not know of the condition. As the majority recognizes, analysis of this issue must begin with Griffin v. Wisconsin (1987) 483 U.S. 868, 107 S.Ct. 3164, 97 L.Ed.2d 709, the only case in which the United States Supreme Court has addressed the legality of probation search conditions. In Griffin, the defendant's search condition allowed the probation officer to conduct a warrantless search so long as there was "reasonable cause" to believe that the defendant (an adult) possessed contraband. Relying on this condition, a closely divided court upheld, by a five-to-four margin, the validity of a warrantless search of the defendant's apartment by a probation officer. The court reasoned that the government's "special needs" in operating a probation system, such as closely monitoring the probationer's compliance with the conditions of probation to ensure that probation "serves as a period of genuine rehabilitation and that the community is not harmed by the probationer's being at large," permitted dispensing with the requirements of a warrant and probable cause when conducting searches of probationers. (Id. at pp. 873-878, 107 S.Ct. at pp. 3168-3171.)

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