The New Jersey Supreme Court recently affirmed the conviction of a high school student for possession of marijuana and distribution of other Controlled Dangerous Substance (CDS), where the defendant’s school mate who was under the influence of a CDS told school authorities that the defendant sold him the drugs.

On appeal, the defendant contended that a search of his vehicle in the school parking lot which determined incriminating evidence was a violation of the Fourth Amendment’s prohibition against unreasonable searches and seizures.

In analyzing the issues, the court noted that the probable cause standard required by the Fourth Amendment may not be appropriate when the police did not participate in the search and specifically refer to a longstanding principal of law in the state that said, in essence, that school if officials have reasonable grounds to believe that there is illicit conduct on school property, the search of a student’s locker could be justified.

Although the defendant argued that probable cause standard should be used for purposes of justifying a search of a student’s car on school grounds, the court rejected the notion and concluded that the reasonableness standard should control the outcome of the case.