Home -> Law Blog Directory -> Criminal Law Blogs -> Fourth Amendment

Criminal Law

: Fourth Amendment

MA declines to find greater state protection in a school search that produced a gun

By John Wesley Hall, Jr.

Student's violation of specific instructions to come by the office and leave his backpack everyday justified the principal searching his backpack when he was found at school. In fact, the principal was waiting for him at the front door of the school when his bus arrived, and defendant entered the school through a different entrance. The search was justified by the school's needs and it located a .380 semi-automatic, and the Massachusetts constitution does not require a greater standard. Commonwealth v. Smith, 2008 Mass. App. LEXIS 691 (July 3, 2008).*

Full post as published by Fourth Amendment on July 07, 2008 (boomark / email).