ABSTRACT
New Jersey v. T.L.O. is a case that many students will find interesting. Often, students do not understand that, although students’ rights are protected at school, the rules of evidence are not as strict for school officials as they are for the police. The Supreme Court established in T.L.O. that police need probable cause to conduct a legal search, whereas schools only need to meet the threshold of reasonable suspicion. The ruling, which relaxed the evidentiary standard, is also representative of the Rehnquist Court, which had the reputation for slowing the expansion of civil liberties that marked the last half of the 20th century. Although the Court affirmed that students have protections guaranteed them in the Constitution, it also affirmed a looser set of rules for school administrators regarding searches.
