Samson v. California
| Samson v. California | |
|---|---|
| Argued February 22, 2006 Decided June 19, 2006 | |
| Full case name | Donald Curtis Samson v. the State of California |
| Docket no. | 04-9728 |
| Citations | 547 U.S. 843 (more) 126 S. Ct. 2193; 165 L. Ed. 2d 250; 2006 U.S. LEXIS 4885 |
| Case history | |
| Prior | Cert. granted, 545 U.S. 1165 (2005). |
| Holding | |
| The Fourth Amendment does not prohibit a police officer from conducting a suspicionless search of a parolee. | |
| Court membership | |
| |
| Case opinions | |
| Majority | Thomas, joined by Roberts, Scalia, Kennedy, Ginsburg, Alito |
| Dissent | Stevens, joined by Souter, Breyer |
| Laws applied | |
| U.S. Const. amend. IV. | |
Samson v. California, 547 U.S. 843 (2006), is a United States Supreme Court case in which the Court affirmed the California Court of Appeal's ruling that suspicionless searches of parolees are lawful under California law and that the search in this case was reasonable under the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution because it was not arbitrary, capricious, or harassing.
This case answered in the affirmative a variation of the question the Court left open in United States v. Knights, 534 U.S. 112, 120 n.6 (2001), "whether a condition of release can so diminish or eliminate a released prisoner's reasonable expectation of privacy that a suspicionless search by a law enforcement officer would not offend the Fourth Amendment."