Vernonia School District v. Acton

The Court has previously dispensed with the government’s requirement of obtaining a warrant supported by probable cause in the past when a “special need” to conduct the search exists. The Court has found a “special need” in relation to public schools prior to this case, as well. See New Jersey v. T.L.O.. In this case, the Court found that “[L]egitimate privacy expectations are even less with regard to student athletes.” They are subjected to a variety of communal observations and “they voluntarily subject themselves to a degree of regulation” by joining the team. The Court balanced the reduced expectation of privacy the student-athletes receive in this environment with the government’s compelling interest of protecting “school athletes, where the risk of immediate physical harm to the drug user or those with whom he is playing his sport is particularly high.” In doing so, it found the school district’s requirements reasonable.