SEARCH OF COLLEGE DORM DECLARED UNLAWFUL

We often forget as citizens of Massachusetts and the United States that we have a constitutional right, both state and federal, to be free from unlawful searches. In other words, there must be probable cause to believe that a crime has, is, or will be committed in order to legally effectuate a search. More particularly, our laws absolutely prohibit searches of a person’s home or residence without a properly based and substantiated search warrant.

Recently, our Supreme Judicial Court declared that a college campus dormitory room which was searched without a warrant and with the use of coercive tactics by the campus police was illegal. This decision finally stems the tide of cases which for one reason or another once seemed to uphold similar searches on the basis of consent of the student or occupant.

Speaking to the issue, the court said “If either the officer’s request or the occupant’s response is so ambiguous that we are unable to discern whether the occupant voluntarily consented to the search, our inquiry will be over and the entry must be deemed unlawful”.

The important point to make is that neither the campus police nor anyone acting on their behalf has a right to search a college dormitory room without a warrant and definitely not without the permission of the student or occupant.