United States v. Santana - Impact

United States v. Santana represented a less rigorous definition of the Fourth Amendment than the Court had maintained earlier in the decade. In the years since this decision, the Court has identified many new circumstances under which warrantless searches and seizures may be made. Familiar examples of such searches include metal detection searches of individuals entering public schools and federal government buildings, drug testing of public and transportation employees, and various searches conducted within prisons by penal authorities. The Court also ruled, subsequent to Santana, that police officers who had a "reasonable" belief that circumstances justified a warrantless search or seizure could proceed with such action, and that any evidence obtained by such a search would be admissible in court.