Fourth Amendment Rights of Faculty

The Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution protects persons from “unreasonable searches and seizures.” Searches can be physically invasive or may invade individuals' legitimate expectation of privacy. Physical invasions, such as being forcibly restrained and ordered to strip for decontamination, seem clearly to invoke Fourth Amendment protection. However, the question of whether a [Page 189]search has taken place under less physically invasive circumstances, such as when a campus security officer looks into an open dormitory room, can be less clear. To make successful claims for protection under the Fourth Amendment for nonphysical invasions, individuals must have genuine beliefs not only that they have expectations of privacy but also that these expectations are reasonable in the view of an ordinary, reasonably prudent person experiencing the same circumstances. If challenges fail either prong of this test, then individuals lack legitimate expectations of privacy and are not entitled to protection under the Fourth Amendment.

At the same time, it is important to note that the right to be free from unreasonable searches or invasions of privacy under the Fourth Amendment cannot be casually conflated with the right of privacy under the Fourteenth Amendment. Moreover, faculty First Amendment and academic freedom concerns over access to material that is sexually explicit on the Internet via university-owned computers and systems, as was the issue in Urofsky v. Gilmore (2000), should not be confused with issues relating to searches. In light of the significant implications involving the rights of faculty members, particularly those at public colleges and universities, this entry examines the parameters of their Fourth Amendment rights, even though many of the cases are presented as nonbinding precedent due to the relative dearth of litigation in this important arena.