Administrative searches
Probable cause
1) Probable cause The probable cause requirement for administrative searches is less stringent than that for a criminal investigation. Evidence of an existing statutory or regulatory violation or a reasonable plan supported by a valid public interest will justify the issuance of a warrant. Camara v. Mun. Court of San Francisco, 387 U.S. 523, 533 (1967).
Use of administrative searches
2) Use of administrative searches The government may not use administrative searches to investigate criminal activity. However, discovery of evidence during the search does not invalidate the search. The following administrative-type searches may be validly made without a warrant:
Administrative searches
g. Administrative searches Administrative search warrants are generally required for nonconsensual fire, health, or safety inspections of residential or private commercial property.
The following administrative-type searches may be validly made without a warrant:
i) Searches of people entering an airplane boarding area, as long as the passenger can prevent the search by not boarding the plane;
The following administrative-type searches may be validly made without a warrant:
ii) Searches of businesses in highly regulated industries such as liquor stores, gun shops, strip-mining operations, and automobile junkyards, because of urgent public interest and under the theory that the business impliedly consented to warrantless searches by entering into a highly regulated industry;
The following administrative-type searches may be validly made without a warrant:
iii) Oral statements seized by wiretaps, when matters of national security are at issue;
The following administrative-type searches may be validly made without a warrant:
iv) Searches of students by public school officials, so long as they are based on reasonable grounds (this standard is lower than probable cause and calls for only a "moderate chance" of finding the expected evidence, rather than a "fair probability" or "substantial chance"), and the measures adopted for the search are reasonably related to the objectives of the search and not excessively intrusive in light of the age and sex of the student and the nature of the infraction. New Jersey v. T.L.O., 469 U.S. 325, 340-341 (1985); Safford Unified Sch. Dist. #1 v. Redding, 557 U.S. 364, 370-371 (2009).
The following administrative-type searches may be validly made without a warrant:
ix) Factory searches of the entire work force to determine citizenship of workers;
The following administrative-type searches may be validly made without a warrant:
v) Special needs searches, such as drug testing for railroad employees involved in an accident or student athletes during the athletic season. To be a special need, the state interest must be a real, current, and vital problem that can be effectively addressed through the proposed search. Even if the need exists, it must be balanced against the privacy interest at stake and the character of the intrusion. Bd. of Educ. v. Earls, 536 U.S. 822, 829 (2002);
The following administrative-type searches may be validly made without a warrant:
vi) Inventory searches of items in official custody, such as impounded vehicles. After lawfully taking custody of property, police may conduct a warrantless search of other property to protect the owner's property while in custody, to protect police from claims of theft, and to protect officers from danger. Inventory searches must be performed according to standardized criteria and procedures. Subjective intent of the officer is irrelevant;
The following administrative-type searches may be validly made without a warrant:
vii) Routine international border searches of border crossers and their belongings within the United States, including (i) stops, but not searches, by roving patrols who reasonably suspect that undocumented immigrants may be in an automobile, (ii) opening of international mail if authorities have reasonable cause to suspect contraband in the mail, and (iii) subsequent reopening of mail after the item had been resealed and delivered to the recipient;
The following administrative-type searches may be validly made without a warrant:
viii) Vehicle checkpoints and roadblocks set up to stop cars on the basis of a neutral articulable standard and designed to serve a limited purpose closely related to the problem of an automobile's inherent mobility (e.g., to get drunk drivers off the road);
The following administrative-type searches may be validly made without a warrant:
x) Searches of government employees' electronically recorded documents and conduct, file cabinets, and desks if they are justified by a reasonable suspicion of work-related misconduct or a non-investigatory, work-related need;
The following administrative-type searches may be validly made without a warrant:
xi) Detention of a traveler whom authorities have reasonable suspicion is smuggling contraband in his stomach;
The following administrative-type searches may be validly made without a warrant:
xii) Searches of parolees and their homes, even with no reasonable suspicion, when a parolee agrees to submit to searches by a parole officer or police officer at any time as a condition of his parole. The rationale being that because there is a greater need to search parolees since they are less likely to be law-abiding citizens, a parolee has a lower expectation of privacy;
The following administrative-type searches may be validly made without a warrant:
xiii) Seizure of contaminated or spoiled food; and
The following administrative-type searches may be validly made without a warrant:
xiv) Searches for the cause of a fire that occurs within a reasonable time after the fire is extinguished, but excluding searches for other evidence unrelated to the cause that would establish that the fire was attributable to arson. Michigan v. Clifford, 464 U.S. 287 (1984) (search of home); Michigan v. Tyler, 436 U.S. 499 (1978) (search of business (furniture store)).
