Search on Public College Grounds (NEED HELP B4 WEDNESDAY)

State: New Hampshire
College: Public

Last Thursday I was with some friends and we were caught trying to smuggle beer into my dorm. The "probable cause" was the fact that we were attempting to enter through the back door, and we were carrying a large duffle bag. I am prepared to challenge my case with Fourth Ammendment cases, such as Marshall v. Barlow and U.S. v. Jeffers, etc. Upon the staff member who asked me to open the bag, I refused. The bag was opened without any warrent. My main question is, does a public college count as a "public school" as in New Jersey v. T.L.O.?

If the answer to this is yes, what other defense could I attempt? My case is being heard on Wednesday @ 9, so PLEASE help me out before then!

And what expectation of privacy do you think you had sneaking around the back of a college dorm room with a large duffle bag?

I pay to live on campus...

If you were going into the backdoor of the apartment complex you live at, and you were carrying a large duffle bag, does your Super. have the right to demand you to open the bag? I think not!

Obviously you are under some type of restrictive contract there or else it would not be necessary to "smuggle" beer into your residence. You did not make it inside your residence with your contraband and were busted outside of it. Curtilage doesn't count in a public setting. Read your rules and regulation for living on campus...I bet there is a totally different set of rules, policies and procedures that would not otherwise apply in the real world.
Chalk it up as what it really is....you were caught breaking the law and you are mad.

9o% of the posts on this board are not people who have been wronged by the law. It is people like your self who have made a knowing choice to break the law and are now looking for a loophole to avoid prosecution.
The simplest answer to your legal woes are to simply not participate in criminal activity.

I was not aware of the "curtilage" part of the 4th Ammendment. Next time you give advice, you wanna try to keep the high and mighty attitude out of the advice? no one really needs it, they just need the facts.

[The simplest answer to your legal woes are to simply not participate in criminal activity.

I thought it was an interesting question, but just did not have an easy answer without extensive research. Public college employees might be agents of the state and subject to the Fourth Amendment, and I doubt attending a public college means you waive your Fourth Amendment rights. The Fourth Amendment applies in many setting where curtilage rules do not (airports, phone booths, etc.) A person's violation of the law does not necessarily justify a violation of their Fourth Amendment rights.