Sotomayor Stands Up Against Unreasonable Strip Searches

by Judith E Schaeffer Tue Jun 02, 2009 at 11:35:44 AM PDT
The Fourth Amendment of our Constitution expressly gives every person in this country the right to be free from "unreasonable searches and seizures." Sometime in the next few weeks, the Supreme Court will decide whether that fundamental guarantee was violated by public school officials who strip searched a 13-year-old girl -- an 8th grade honor student with no disciplinary record -- on the basis of an unsubstantiated tip from another student that the girl might be in possession of the headache remedy ibuprofen (commonly known as Nuprin or Advil). The precise legal question the Court will need to determine in Safford Unified School District v. Redding is whether, under the circumstances, school officials violated the young girl’s Fourth Amendment right not to be subjected to an "unreasonable" search when they had her strip to her underwear and pull her bra and underpants out and shake them in front of school employees searching for a headache pill. Legitimate and important competing interests bear on that decision -- the interest of school officials in maintaining the safety of all students in their care, as well as the privacy and human dignity interests of the young girl who was subjected to the strip search (which turned up nothing).
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/6/2/738060/-Sotomayor-Stands-Up-Against-Unreasonable-Strip-Searches