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Iowa Parole Search Condition is Not Search Consent; Warrantless Search Violated Iowa Constitution

Iowa Parole Search Condition is Not Search Consent; Warrantless Search Violated Iowa Constitution

 

by Mark Wilson

 

The Iowa Supreme Court held that a warrantless search of a parolee’s home violated the Iowa Constitution.

 

Christina Kern was placed on parole after her third driving while intoxicated conviction. Kern’s standard parole conditions require her to “submit (her) person, property, place of residence, vehicle, and personal effects to search at any time, with or without a search warrant, warrant of arrest or reasonable cause by any parole officer or law enforcement officer.”

 

On November 3, 2010, the Iowa Department of Human Services (DHS) received an anonymous tip about a marijuana grow operation in Kern’s residence. During a November 5, 2010 home visit, DHS and police asked for Kern’s consent to search her residence. She refused and police searched “the house pursuant to the standard consent provision of parole agreements.”

 

Kern was charged with several drug offenses when the search produced firearms and evidence of marijuana grow operation.

 

The trial court denied Kern’s motion to suppress the evidence seized during the search, finding that she “gave ‘advance consent to search her property without a warrant or without reasonable cause’ by signing the parole agreement.” Kern was ultimately convicted and appealed.

 

The Iowa Supreme Court noted that it had held that Article I, section 8, of the Iowa Constitution “vests parolees with the expectation of privacy enjoyed by persons not convicted of crimes and allows them to object to a search of their home or person.” As such, the Court analyzed the constitutionality of the search of Kern’s home, under “several doctrines of constitutional search and seizure law.”

 

That detailed analysis led the Court to “conclude no exception to the warrant requirement of article I, section 8, of the Iowa Constitution justifies the warrantless search of Kern’s home.” Therefore, the evidence should have been suppressed. See: Iowa v. Kern, 831 N.W.2d 149 (Iowa 2013).

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Related legal case

Iowa v. Kern