A number of important legal issues surround probation. Identify and discuss two Supreme Court cases that deal with the issue of a probationer's civil rights.

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

The Court has ruled that probationers have a unique status and therefore are entitled to fewer constitutional protections than other citizens. The student may discuss two of the following three cases from the text. In Griffin v. Wisconsin, the court held that a probationer's home may be searched without a warrant because probation departments "have in mind the welfare of the probationer" and must "respond quickly to evidence of misconduct." In Minnesota v. Murphy, the court held that the probation officer-client relationship is not confidential, as are physician-patient or attorney-client relationships. If a probationer admits to committing a crime to his or her probation officer, the information can be passed on to the police or district attorney. In fact, a probation officer could even use trickery or psychological pressure to get information and turn it over to the police. In United States v. Knights, the Court found a warrantless search of a probationer's home for the purposes of gathering criminal evidence is legal under some circumstances, for example, if the search was based on a reasonable suspicion that the probationer had committed another crime while on probation and if submitting to searches was part of the probation order. The government's interest in preventing crime, combined with Knights's diminished expectation of privacy, required only reasonable suspicion to make the search fit within the protections of the Fourth Amendment.