The Fourth Circuit's newly issued decision inO.W. v. Carr, Record No. 24-1288 (April 9, 2026) marks one of the most important student-search cases in decades – particularly as schools grapple with the realities of smartphones in the classroom. At its core, O.W. answers a question that has lingered unresolved since the rise of modern smartphones: do the traditional rules governing school searches still apply to digital devices containing vast quantities of personal data?
The Fourth Circuit's answer is clear – yes, they do.
The Holding: T.L.O. Still Governs Even for Smartphones
The Court reaffirmed that New Jersey v. T.L.O., 469 U.S. 325 (1985) remains the controlling framework for student searches. Under T.L.O., school officials may conduct a search based on reasonable suspicion, so long as the search is justified at its inception and reasonably related in scope. Applying that standard, the Court concluded that the assistant principal's search of the student's phone, which was
