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Annual Survey Of Virginia Law: Criminal Procedure, Ronald J. Bacigal

University of Richmond Law Review

In the landmark case of New Jersey v. T.L.O., the United States Supreme Court applied the fourth amendment to searches conducted by public school officials. This past term, in O'Conner v. Ortega, the Court held that the fourth amendment is also applicable to work-related searches conducted by public employers. As in New Jersey v. T.L.O., the Court rejected the probable cause standard in favor of a "reasonableness under all the circumstances" test to determine the constitutionality of such searches. This general "reasonableness" approach was also approved in Maryland v. Garrison, where the Court held that an "objectively understandable and reasonable" …