Donald Curtis Samson v. California

Decided June 19, 2006. Clarence Thomas delivered the opinion of the Court.

Docket 04-9728 · 547 U.S. 843 (2006) · Cited 982 times

Holding

The Fourth Amendment does not prohibit a police officer from conducting a suspicionless search of a parolee.

The Court’s statement of the holding, from the opinion’s syllabus. The syllabus is prepared by the Reporter of Decisions and is not part of the opinion of the Court — read the official opinion for authority.

How the Justices voted

Decided 6–3.

“Concurring” means agreeing with the outcome; any split shown is the Court’s judgment, not each Justice’s reasoning. Source: the Supreme Court Database (Spaeth et al.), Washington University.

Precedents cited

Supreme Court decisions this opinion relies on, ordered by how often it cites each. Cases in our collection link through; others are named.

• United States v. Knights · 534 U.S. 112 (2001)
• Griffin v. Wisconsin · 483 U.S. 868 (1987)
• Hudson v. Palmer · 468 U.S. 517 (1984)
• Morrissey v. Brewer · 408 U.S. 471 (1972)
• Ferguson v. City of Charleston · 532 U.S. 67 (2001)
• United States v. Martinez-Fuerte · 428 U.S. 543 (1976)
• City of Indianapolis v. Edmond · 531 U.S. 32 (2000)
• Pennsylvania Bd. of Probation and Parole v. Scott · 524 U.S. 357 (1998)
• Delaware v. Prouse · 440 U.S. 648 (1979)
• Boyd v. United States · 116 U.S. 616 (1886)
• Skinner v. Railway Labor Executives' Assn. · 489 U.S. 602 (1989)
• Terry v. Ohio · 392 U.S. 1 (1968)
• Schneckloth v. Bustamonte · 412 U.S. 218 (1973)
• Turner v. Safley · 482 U.S. 78 (1987)
• Gagnon v. Scarpelli · 411 U.S. 778 (1973)
• United States v. Brignoni-Ponce · 422 U.S. 873 (1975)
• Camara v. Municipal Court of City and County of San Francisco · 387 U.S. 523 (1967)
• Smith v. Maryland · 442 U.S. 735 (1979)
• Ewing v. California · 538 U.S. 11 (2003)
• National Treasury Employees Union v. Von Raab · 489 U.S. 656 (1989)
• Chandler v. Miller · 520 U.S. 305 (1997)
• Escoe v. Zerbst · 295 U.S. 490 (1935)

Cited by

Later Supreme Court opinions in our collection that cite this case.

• Maryland v. King · 569 U.S. 435 (2013)
• Grady v. North Carolina · 575 U.S. 306 (2015)

Official text

Read the official opinion (U.S. Reports, govinfo.gov)

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Source: Supreme Court of the United States, slip opinions (2006). Citation count from the Free Law Project’s CourtListener bulk data. Data last verified 2026-07-03. Informational only; verify against the primary source before relying. Not a consumer report (FCRA).