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11.2: Samson v. California

  • Page ID
    54421
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    PETITIONER                                                                                     RESPONDENT

    Donald Curtis Samson                                                                     California

    DOCKET NO.                                                                                      DECIDED BY

    81-430                                                                                           Roberts Court

    LOWER COURT

    State appellate court

    CITATION

    547 US 843 (2006)

    ARGUED

    Feb 22, 2006

    DECIDED

    Jun 19, 2006

    GRANTED

    Sep 27, 2005

    ADVOCATES

    Jonathan L. Marcus argued the cause for Respondent

    Ronald E. Niver argued the cause for Respondent

    Facts of the case

    A police officer stopped and searched Samson on the street in San Bruno, California. The officer had no warrant and later admitted he had stopped Samson only because he knew him to be on parole. The officer found that Samson was in possession of methamphetamines. Samson was arrested and charged with drug possession in state court. At trial Samson argued the drugs were inadmissible as evidence, because the search had violated his Fourth Amendment rights. The trial court denied the motion and the state supreme court declined to hear the case.

    Question

    Did the Fourth Amendment prohibit the police from conducting a warrantless search of a person who was subject to a parole search condition, where there was no suspicion of criminal wrongdoing and the sole reason for the search was because the person was on parole?

    Conclusion

    6–3 Decision

    FOR AGAINST

    Ginsburg

    Kennedy

    Roberts

    Alito

    Scalia

    Thomas

    Stevens

    Souter

    Breyer

    Majority Opinion by Clarence Thomas

    No. In a 6-to-3 decision authored by Justice Clarence Thomas, the Supreme Court held that Samson " did not have an expectation of privacy that society would recognize legitimate." Parole allows convicted criminals out of prison before their sentence is completed. An inmate who chooses to complete his sentence outside of direct physical custody, however, remains in the the Department of Correction's legal custody until the conclusion of his sentence, and therefore has significantly reduced privacy rights. In this case, Samson had also been required, as a condition of his parole, to sign an agreement that he would be subject to search or seizure by a parole officer or other peace officer..., with or without a search warrant and with or without cause." This written consent to suspicionless searches, along with his already reduced privacy interests as a parolee, combined to make the search constitutional. Justices Stevens, Souter and Breyer dissented, arguing that parolees have an expectation of privacy greater than that of prisoners, which was violated by the search at issue in this case.

    Contributors and Attributions


    This page titled 11.2: Samson v. California is shared under a CC BY license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by Larry Alvarez.