Rationalizing Administrative Searches

Authors

Michigan Law Review, University of Michigan Law School

Abstract

At the outset, this Note examines the major decisions concerning administrative searches. Specifically, it traces the development of a warrant requirement and of the corresponding lower standard of probable cause announced in the Camara and See decisions. Subsequent modifications of that seemingly absolute rule are then analyzed. To develop a framework for evaluating administrative search cases, Section II groups those principal Supreme Court cases, along with pertinent lower court opinions, into three tiers of fourth amendment protection: administrative searches that require a warrant based on a traditional criminal standard of probable cause; administrative searches that require a warrant based on administrative probable cause; and administrative searches that require no warrant at all. It critically assesses the theory courts have used to determine what degree of protection the subject of a search deserves.

The Note concludes by suggesting that courts implicitly have recognized a distinction between commercial property and private dwellings in deciding whether to apply the traditional probable cause test or the administrative probable cause test. It then recommends a recategorization of searches within the three-tiered framework consistent with such a distinction.

Recommended Citation

Michigan Law Review, Rationalizing Administrative Searches, 77 Mich. L. Rev. 1291 (1979).
Available at: https://repository.law.umich.edu/mlr/vol77/iss5/4