Court Opinion

ID: 9431138
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-02 23:31:24.012109+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:23:27.157638
License: Public Domain

*881Justice Blackmun,
with whom
Justice Marshall joins and, as to Parts I-B and I-C, Justice Brennan joins and, as to Part I-C, Justice Stevens joins, dissenting.
In ruling that the home of a probationer may be searched by a probation officer without a warrant, the Court today takes another step that diminishes the protection given by the Fourth Amendment to the “right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures.” In my view, petitioner’s probationary status provides no reason to abandon the warrant requirement. The probation system’s special law enforcement needs may justify a search by a probation officer on the basis of “reasonable suspicion,” but even that standard was not met in this case.
I
The need for supervision in probation presents one of the “exceptional circumstances in which special needs, beyond the normal need for law enforcement,” New Jersey v. T. L. O., 469 U. S. 325, 351 (1985) (opinion concurring in judgment), justify an application of the Court’s balancing test and an examination of the practicality of the warrant and probable-cause requirements. The Court, however, fails to recognize that this is a threshold determination of special law enforcement needs. The warrant and probable-cause requirements provide the normal standard for “reasonable” searches. “[0]nly when the practical realities of a particular situation suggest that a government official cannot obtain a warrant based upon probable cause without sacrificing the ultimate goals to which a search would contribute, does the Court turn to a ‘balancing’ test to formulate a standard of reasonableness for this context.” O’Connor v. Ortega, 480 U. S. 709, 741 (1987) (dissenting opinion). The presence of special law enforcement needs justifies resort to the balancing test, but it does not preordain the necessity of recognizing exceptions to the warrant and probable-cause requirements.
*882My application of the balancing test leads me to conclude that special law enforcement needs justify a search by a probation agent of the home of a probationer on the basis of a reduced level of suspicion. The acknowledged need for supervision, however, does not also justify an exception to the warrant requirement, and I would retain this means of protecting a probationer’s privacy.1 Moreover, the necessity for the neutral check provided by the warrant requirement is demonstrated by this case, in which the search was conducted on the basis of information that did not begin to approach the level of “reasonable grounds.”
A
The probation officer is not dealing with an average citizen, but with a person who has been convicted of a crime.2 This presence of an offender in the community creates the need for special supervision. I therefore agree that a probation agent must have latitude in observing a probationer if the agent is to carry out his supervisory responsibilities effectively. Re*883cidivism among probationers is a major problem, and supervision is one means of combating that threat. See ante, at 875. Supervision also provides a crucial means of advancing rehabilitation by allowing a probation agent to intervene at the first sign of trouble.
One important aspect of supervision is the monitoring of a probationer’s compliance with the conditions of his probation. In order to ensure compliance with those conditions, a probation agent may need to search a probationer’s home to check for violations. While extensive inquiry may be required to gather the information necessary to establish probable cause that a violation has occurred, a “reasonable grounds” standard allows a probation agent to avoid this delay and to intervene at an earlier stage of suspicion. This standard is thus consistent with the level of supervision necessary to protect the public and to aid rehabilitation. At the same time, if properly applied, the standard of reasonable suspicion will protect a probationer from unwarranted intrusions into his privacy.
B
I do not think, however, that special law enforcement needs justify a modification of the protection afforded a probationer’s privacy by the warrant requirement. The search in this case was conducted in petitioner’s home, the place that traditionally has been regarded as the center of a person’s private life, the bastion in which one has a legitimate expectation of privacy protected by the Fourth Amendment. See Silverman v. United States, 365 U. S. 505, 511 (1961) (“At the very core [of the Fourth Amendment] stands the right of a man to retreat into his own home and there be free from unreasonable governmental intrusion”). The Court consistently has held that warrantless searches and seizures in a home violate the Fourth Amendment absent consent or exigent circumstances. See, e. g., United States v. Karo, 468 U. S. 705, 714-715 (1984); Steagald v. United States, 451 U. S. 204 (1981) (arrest warrant inadequate for *884search of home of a third party); Payton v. New York, 445 U. S. 573 (1980) (warrantless arrest of suspect in his home unconstitutional).
“It is axiomatic that the ‘physical entry of the home is the chief evil against which the wording of the Fourth Amendment is directed.’ United States v. United States District Court, 407 U. S. 297, 313 (1972). And a principal protection against unnecessary intrusions into private dwellings is the warrant requirement imposed by the Fourth Amendment on agents of the government who seek to enter the home for purposes of search or arrest. It is not surprising, therefore, that the Court has recognized, as ‘a “basic principle of Fourth Amendment law[,]” that searches and seizures inside a home without a warrant are presumptively unreasonable.’ Payton v. New York, 445 U. S., at 586.” Welsh v. Wisconsin, 466 U. S. 740, 748-749 (1984) (footnote and citation omitted).
The administrative-inspection cases are inapposite to a search of a home. Each of the cases that this Court has found to fall within the exception to the administrative-warrant requirement has concerned the lesser expectation of privacy attached to a “closely regulated” business. See, e. g., New York v. Burger, 482 U. S. 691 (1987) (vehicle dismantlers); Donovan v. Dewey, 452 U. S. 594 (1981) (mines); United States v. Biswell, 406 U. S. 311 (1972) (gun dealers). The reasoning that may justify an administrative inspection without a warrant in the case of a business enterprise simply does not extend to the invasion of the special privacy the Court has recognized for the home.
A probationer usually lives at home, and often, as in this case, with a family. He retains a legitimate privacy interest in the home that must be respected to the degree that it is not incompatible with substantial governmental needs. The Court in New Jersey v. T. L. O. acknowledged that the Fourth Amendment issue needs to be resolved in such a way *885as to “ensure that the [privacy] interests of students will be invaded no more than is necessary to achieve the legitimate end of preserving order in the schools.” 469 U. S., at 343. The privacy interests of probationers should be protected by a similar standard, and invaded no more than is necessary to satisfy probation’s dual goals of protecting the public safety and encouraging the rehabilitation of the probationer.
The search in this case was not the result of an ordinary home visit by petitioner’s probation agent for which no warrant is required. Cf. Wyman v. James, 400 U. S. 309 (1971). It was a search pursuant to a tip, ostensibly from the police, for the purpose of uncovering evidence of a criminal violation. There is nothing about the status of probation that justifies a special exception to the warrant requirement under these circumstances. If in a particular case there is a compelling need to search the home of a probationer without delay, then it is possible for a search to be conducted immediately under the established exception for exigent circumstances. There is no need to create a separate warrant exception for probationers. The existing exception provides a probation agent with all the flexibility the agent needs.
The circumstances of this case illustrate the fact that the warrant requirement does not create any special impediment to the achievement of the goals of probation. The probation supervisor, Michael T. Lew, waited “[t]wo or three hours” after receiving the telephone tip before he proceeded to petitioner’s home to conduct the search. App. 16. He testified that he was waiting for the return of petitioner’s official agent who was attending a legal proceeding, and that eventually he requested another probation agent to initiate the search. Id., at 16, 51. Mr. Lew thus had plenty of time to obtain a search warrant. If the police themselves had investigated the report of a gun at petitioner’s residence, they would have been required to obtain a warrant. There simply was no compelling reason to abandon the safeguards provided by neutral review.
*886The Court appears to hold the curious assumption that the probationer will benefit by dispensing with the warrant requirement. It notes that a probation officer does not normally conduct searches, as does a police officer, and, moreover, the officer is “supposed to have in mind the welfare of the probationer.” Ante, at 876. The implication is that a probation agent will be less likely to initiate an inappropriate search than a law-enforcement officer, and is thus less in need of neutral review. Even if there were data to support this notion, a reduced need for review does not justify a complete removal of the warrant requirement. Furthermore, the benefit that a probationer is supposed to gain from probation is rehabilitation. I fail to see how the role of the probation agent in “ 'fosterling] growth and development of the client,’” ibid., quoting Wis. Admin. Code HSS §328.04 (2)(i) (1981), is enhanced the slightest bit by the ability to conduct a search without the checks provided by prior neutral review. If anything, the power to decide to search will prove a barrier to establishing any degree of trust between agent and “client.”
The Court also justifies the exception to the warrant requirement that it would find in the Wisconsin regulations by stressing the need to have a probation agent, rather than a judge, decide how closely supervised a particular probationer should be. See ante, at 876. This argument mistakes the nature of the search at issue. The probation agent retains discretion over the terms of a probationer’s supervision — the warrant requirement introduces a judge or a magistrate into the decision only when a full-blown search for evidence of a criminal violation is at stake. The Court’s justification for the conclusion that the warrant requirement would interfere with the probation system by way of an analogy to the authority possessed by parents over their children is completely unfounded. The difference between the two situations is too obvious to belabor. Unlike the private nature of a parent’s interaction with his or her child, the probation system is a *887governmental operation, with explicit standards. Experience has shown that a neutral judge can best determine if those standards are met and a search is justified. This case provides an excellent illustration of the need for neutral review of a probation officer’s decision to conduct a search, for it is obvious that the search was not justified even by a reduced standard of reasonable suspicion.
C
The Court concludes that the search of petitioner’s home satisfied the requirements of the Fourth Amendment “because it was carried out pursuant to a regulation that itself satisfies the Fourth Amendment’s reasonableness requirement under well-established principles.” Ante, at 873. In the Court’s view, it seems that only the single regulation requiring “reasonable grounds” for a search is relevant to its decision. Ante, at 880, n. 8. When faced with the patent failure of the probation agents to comply with the Wisconsin regulations, the Court concludes that it “is irrelevant to the case before us” that the probation agents “may have violated Wisconsin state regulations.” Ibid. All of these other regulations, which happen to define the steps necessary to ensure that reasonable grounds are present, can be ignored. This conclusion that the existence of a facial requirement for “reasonable grounds” automatically satisfies the constitutional protection that a search be reasonable can only be termed tautological. The content of a standard is found in its application and, in this case, I cannot discern the application of any standard whatsoever.
The suspicion in this case was based on an unverified tip from an unknown source. With or without the Wisconsin regulation, such information cannot constitutionally justify a search. Mr. Lew testified that he could not recall which police officer called him with the information about the gun, although he thought it “probably” was Officer Pittner. App. 16. Officer Pittner, however, did not remember making any *888such telephone call. Id., at 39. From all that the record reveals, the call could have been placed by anyone. It is even plausible that the information did not come from the police at all, but from someone impersonating an officer.
Even assuming that a police officer spoke to Mr. Lew, there was little to demonstrate the reliability of the information he received from that unknown officer. The record does not reveal even the precise content of the tip. The unknown officer actually may have reported that petitioner “had” contraband in his possession, id., at 51, or he merely may have suggested that petitioner “may have had guns in his apartment.” Id., at 14. Mr. Lew testified to both at different stages of the proceedings. Nor do we know anything about the ultimate source of the information. The unknown officer’s belief may have been founded on a hunch, a rumor, or an informant’s tip. Without knowing more about the basis of the tip, it is impossible to form a conclusion, let alone a reasonable conclusion, that there were “reasonable grounds” to justify a search.
Mr. Lew failed completely to make the most rudimentary effort to confirm the information he had received or to evaluate whether reasonable suspicion justified a search. Conspicuously absent was any attempt to comply with the Wisconsin regulations that governed the content of the “reasonable grounds” standard. Wis. Admin. Code HSS § 328.21(7) (1981).3 No observations of a staff member could *889have been considered, as required by subsection (7)(a), for Mr. Lew did not consult the agent who had personal knowledge of petitioner’s case. When information was provided by an informant, subsections (7)(c) and (d) required evaluation of the reliability of the information relied upon and the reliability of the informant. Mr. Lew proceeded in violation of these basic requirements. Subsection (7)(f) referred to “information provided by the client” and the explanatory notes stated that “the client should be talked to before the search. Sometimes, this will elicit information helpful in determining whether a search should be made.” § 328.21 App., p. 250. This requirement, too, was ignored. Nor do any of the other considerations support a finding of reasonable grounds to conduct the search. There is no indication that there had been prior seizures of contraband from petitioner, or that his case presented any special need to verify compliance with the law. See §§ 328.21(7)(h) and (i).
The majority acknowledges that it is “most unlikely” that the suspicion in this case would have met the normal “probable cause” standard. Ante, at 878. It concludes, however, that this is not an “ordinary” case because of the need for supervision and the continuing relationship between the probationer and the probation agency. Ibid. In view of this con-*890timing relationship, the regulations mandated consideration of factors that go beyond those normally considered in determining probable cause to include information provided by the probationer and the experience of the staff member with the probationer. But unless the agency adheres to the regulations, it is sophistic to rely on them as a justification for conducting a search on a lesser degree of suspicion. Mr. Lew drew on no special knowledge of petitioner in deciding to search his house. He had no contact with the agent familiar with petitioner’s case before commencing the search. Nor, as discussed above, was there the slightest attempt to obtain information from petitioner. In this case, the continuing relationship between petitioner and the agency did not supply support for any suspicion, reasonable or otherwise, that would justify a search of petitioner’s home.
II
There are many probationers in this country, and they have committed crimes that range widely in seriousness. The Court has determined that all of them may be subjected to such searches in the absence of a warrant. Moreover, in authorizing these searches on the basis of a reduced level of suspicion, the Court overlooks the feeble justification for the search in this case.
I respectfully dissent.

 There is no need to deny the protection provided by the warrant requirement simply because a search can be justified by less than probable cause. The Court recognizes that administrative warrants are issued on less than probable cause, but it concludes that this has never been the ease for “judicial warrants.” Ante, at 877-878. This conclusion overlooks the fact that administrative warrants are issued by the judiciary. See, e. g., Camara v. Municipal Court, 387 U. S. 523, 532 (1967) (“These are questions which may be reviewed by a neutral magistrate”); Marshall v. Barlow’s, Inc., 436 U. S. 307, 316 (1978) (warrant requirement for inspection will not “impose serious burdens on . . . the courts”); id., at 323 (warrant “would provide assurances from a neutral officer that the inspection is reasonable under the Constitution”).

 I find curious, however, the Court's reference to the constitutional standard of review for prison regulations, which neither party argued was applicable to this case. There is plainly no justification for importing automatically into the probation context these special constitutional standards, which are necessitated by the “essential goals” of “maintaining institutional security and preserving internal order and discipline” inside the walls of a prison. Bell v. Wolfish, 441 U. S. 520, 546 (1979). A probationer is not in confinement.

 The version of the regulations cited by the Court provided:
“(7) In deciding whether there are reasonable grounds to believe a client possesses contraband, or a client’s living quarters or property contain contraband, a staff member should consider:
“(a) The observations of a staff member;
“(b) Information provided by an informant;
“(c) The reliability of the information relied on; in evaluating reliability, attention should be given to whether the information is detailed and consistent and whether it is corroborated;
“(d) The reliability of an informant; in evaluating reliability, attention should be given to whether the informant has supplied reliable information *889in the past, and whether the informant has reason to supply inaccurate information;
“(e) The activity of the client that relates to whether the client might possess contraband;
“(f) Information provided by the client which is relevant to whether the client possesses contraband;
“(g) The experience of a staff member with that client or in a similar circumstance;
“(h) Prior seizures of contraband from the client; and
“(i) The need to verify compliance with rules of supervision and state and federal law.” Wis. Admin. Code HSS § 328.21(7) (1981).
The regulations governing the administration of Wisconsin’s probation system have been amended recently. See ante, at 871, n. 1. Under the new rule the word “should” has been changed to “shall” throughout this subsection. See Wis. Admin. Code HSS § 328.21(6) (1986).