00-1260 U.S. v. Knights

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The warrantless search of Knights, supported by reasonable suspicion and authorized by a probation condition, satisfied the Fourth Amendment. As nothing in Knights’ probation condition limits searches to those with a “probationary” purpose, the question here is whether the Fourth Amendment imposes such a limitation. Knights argues that a warrantless search of a probationer satisfies the Fourth Amendment only if it is just like the search at issue in Griffin v. Wisconsin, 483 U.S. 868, i.e., a “special needs” search conducted by a probation officer monitoring whether the probationer is complying with probation restrictions. This dubious logic – that an opinion upholding the constitutionality of a particular search implicitly holds unconstitutional any search that is not like it – runs contrary to Griffin’s express statement that its “special needs” holding made it “unnecessary to consider whether” warrantless searches of probationers were otherwise reasonable under the Fourth Amendment. Id., at 878, 880. And this Court need not decide whether Knights’ acceptance of the search condition constituted consent to a complete waiver of his Fourth

Amendment rights in the sense of Schneckloth v. Bustamonte, 412 U.S. 218, because the search here was reasonable under the Court’s general Fourth Amendment “totality of the circumstances” approach, Ohio v. Robinette, 519 U.S. 33, 39, with the search condition being a salient circumstance. The Fourth Amendment’s touchstone is reasonableness, and a search’s reasonableness is determined by assessing, on the one hand, the degree to which it intrudes upon an individual’s privacy and, on the other, the degree to which it is needed to promote legitimate governmental interests. Wyoming v. Houghton, 526 U.S. 295, 300. Knights’ status as a probationer subject to a search condition informs both sides of that balance. The sentencing judge reasonably concluded that the search condition would further the two primary goals of probation-rehabilitation and protecting society from future criminal violations. Knights was unambiguously informed of the search condition. Thus, Knights’ reasonable expectation of privacy was significantly diminished.

219 F.3d 1138, reversed and remanded.

Local Effect: The decision casts into considerable doubt the continued relevance of Wisconsin’s test in determining whether a search of a probationer or parolee is initiated by the DOC or the police (see State v. Hajicek, 2001 WI 3, 240 Wis.2d 349, 620 N.W.2d 781).

Rehnquist, C. J.; Souter, J., concurring.