1. Write a brief summary (one paragraph each of 3-5 sentences) of the New Jersey v. T.L.O. and Vernonia v. Acton cases.
In the Jersey v. T.L.O case a ninth grade girl was found smoking in the schools …show more content…
How are the cases similar to each other? In other words, why would the earlier case be a precedent in the decision for the other?
In both these cases drugs play a large role in the court case. Both the cases involve young students and they are both cases about invasions of privacy and fourth amendment rights. In the first case it was decided that student’s fourth amendment rights are different when enrolled in public schools this effected the decision the Veronica v. Action case. They are also both cases where the Supreme Court rules in favor of the school.
3. What are the main arguments for each side in the Vernonia v. Acton case? What details does each side use to support their opinion?
The majority opinion states that they feel that randomized drug testing should be allowed because it deters drug uses. They also state that public school student’s fourth amendment right is different than an adults rights. The minority opinion argues that randomized drug testing is searching without probable cause or reasonable suspicion. The minority opinion states "The view that blanket searches are 'intolerable and unreasonable' is well grounded in history. What the Framers of the Fourth Amendment most strongly opposed, with limited exceptions wholly inapplicable here, were general …show more content…
Action case. I feel that they had a stronger argument because the randomized drug testing protocol was put in place to help lower drug usage in the school board, and was not just this one student. The biggest worry in the case was the randomized drug test violated the students fourth amendment right, however as stated in the case "Fourth Amendment rights, no less than First and Fourteenth Amendment rights, are different in public schools than elsewhere; the 'reasonableness' inquiry cannot disregard the schools' custodial and tutelary responsibility for children. For their own good and that of their classmates, public school children are routinely required to submit to various physical examinations, and to be vaccinated against various diseases." This quote explains how students’ rights may be altered or changed to help promote the overall good of society. "While children assuredly do not 'shed their constitutional rights…at the schoolhouse gate,' (Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District) the nature of those rights is what is appropriate for children in school." As stated in this case, and in prior cases, public school student’s rights are very different from those of an adult. This makes it posable for the school to do things such as randomized drug testing or expelling their students for promoting drugs even if it wasn’t on the school