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Murphy’s Law, written by Barbara Murphy, appears monthly in The Golden Times. The column represents the opinion of the author and is not necessarily the opinion of the publisher.
Naked Truth: Supreme Court’s
Strip-Search Ruling Is Frightening
In a recent decision the conservative majority on the U.S. Supreme Court again demonstrated that it is no friend of the American people and no champion of justice, mercy or common decency. The decision is so disturbing that it conjures up memories of Abu Ghraib.
The majority held that anybody who is arrested — whether rightly or wrongly — may be subjected to intense and degrading strip searches. The case was brought by a South Jersey man, Albert W. Florence, who was arrested during a traffic stop by a New Jersey state trooper. The trooper had checked a computer database which showed that Mr. Florence had failed to pay a civil fine. The information was incorrect. Mr. Florence had paid the fine. However, he was jailed for six days until it was finally determined that indeed the database was wrong and the fine had been paid.
But before his release, Mr. Florence was detained in two jails and was subjected like every incoming prison detainee to humiliating bodily searches. He was made to shower with a delousing agent and was made to submit, while naked, to probes of every bodily orifice and his private parts. At one point, he said, he also had to cough while squatting naked.
In his suit against the government entities that run the two jails in which he was held, attorneys for Mr. Florence argued that under the Constitution people arrested for minor offenses cannot be subjected to invasive searches unless prison officials have reason to suspect concealment of weapons, drugs or other contraband.
The trial court agreed with Mr. Florence that strip-searching non-indictable offenders without reasonable suspicion violates the Fourth Amendment’s prohibition against unreasonable searches and seizures.
The Supreme Court’s conservative majority scorned that holding, ruling that correctional officials “have a significant interest in conducting a thorough search as a standard part of the intake process.”
The high court majority insisted that the admission of new inmates creates risks for staff, the existing detainee population, and the new detainees themselves. Even people arrested for a minor offense, the majority said, may be coerced by others into concealing contraband. The majority said that while the restrictions Mr. Florence suggests would limit the intrusion into the privacy of some detainees, “it would be at the risk of increased danger to everyone in the facility, including the less serious offenders.”
In what has been described as a “blistering dissent,” Justice Stephen Breyer, writing for the minority, essentially called the majority’s reasoning a bunch of hogwash.
As Justice Breyer pointed out, those confined in prison still retain basic Constitutional rights, among them the Fourth Amendment right to be free of unreasonable searches and seizures.
“A strip search that involves a stranger peering without consent at a naked individual, and in particular at the most private portions of that person’s body, is a serious invasion of privacy,” Justice Breyer said.
He noted that many other courts which have dealt with practices similar to those at issue in this case have described them as “demeaning, dehumanizing, undignified, humiliating, terrifying, unpleasant, embarrassing and repulsive, signifying degradation and submission.”
Justice Breyer said the harm to a person’s right to privacy would seem “particularly acute” where the person searched may well have had no expectation of being subject to such a search, say because “she had simply received a traffic ticket for failing to buckle a seat belt, because he had not previously paid a civil fine, or because she had been arrested for a minor trespass.”
Justice Breyer insisted that prison officials had no real justification for subjecting Mr. Florence to humiliating, degrading strip searches. In particular, he said, there was no connection between the probe of Mr. Florence’s private parts and the “squat and cough” to prison officials’ concerns about health problems or gang connections.
Moreover, the justice said, many professional organizations, including correctional associations, support a standard that forbids suspicionless strip searches. Laws in at least 10 states also prohibit such searches, the justice said, and at least seven Courts of Appeal have required reasonable suspicion that an arrestee is concealing weapons or contraband before a strip search for someone arrested for a minor offense can take place.
Justice Breyer said: “I am left without an example of any instance in which contraband was found on an individual through an inspection of their private parts or body cavities which could not have been found under a policy requiring reasonable suspicion.”
The majority decision which Justice Breyer so rightfully condemns, should give us all chills. It’s a frightening miscarriage of justice.
Can you imagine yourself being arrested and strip searched for a fine you paid but was registered unpaid because of a computer glitch? What happened to Mr. Florence could happen to any of us because of the majority decision in this case.
And, ladies, don’t think you’d be spared because you’re female. Women are subjected to strip searches just like those to which Mr. Florence was subjected. Justice Breyer pointed out that one female victim of this degrading procedure was a nun, a Sister of Divine Providence for 50 years. She was strip searched after her arrest for trespassing during an anti-war demonstration.
*
Barbara Murphy, 79, writes about controversial issues each month.
Strip-Search Ruling Is Frightening
In a recent decision the conservative majority on the U.S. Supreme Court again demonstrated that it is no friend of the American people and no champion of justice, mercy or common decency. The decision is so disturbing that it conjures up memories of Abu Ghraib.
The majority held that anybody who is arrested — whether rightly or wrongly — may be subjected to intense and degrading strip searches. The case was brought by a South Jersey man, Albert W. Florence, who was arrested during a traffic stop by a New Jersey state trooper. The trooper had checked a computer database which showed that Mr. Florence had failed to pay a civil fine. The information was incorrect. Mr. Florence had paid the fine. However, he was jailed for six days until it was finally determined that indeed the database was wrong and the fine had been paid.
But before his release, Mr. Florence was detained in two jails and was subjected like every incoming prison detainee to humiliating bodily searches. He was made to shower with a delousing agent and was made to submit, while naked, to probes of every bodily orifice and his private parts. At one point, he said, he also had to cough while squatting naked.
In his suit against the government entities that run the two jails in which he was held, attorneys for Mr. Florence argued that under the Constitution people arrested for minor offenses cannot be subjected to invasive searches unless prison officials have reason to suspect concealment of weapons, drugs or other contraband.
The trial court agreed with Mr. Florence that strip-searching non-indictable offenders without reasonable suspicion violates the Fourth Amendment’s prohibition against unreasonable searches and seizures.
The Supreme Court’s conservative majority scorned that holding, ruling that correctional officials “have a significant interest in conducting a thorough search as a standard part of the intake process.”
The high court majority insisted that the admission of new inmates creates risks for staff, the existing detainee population, and the new detainees themselves. Even people arrested for a minor offense, the majority said, may be coerced by others into concealing contraband. The majority said that while the restrictions Mr. Florence suggests would limit the intrusion into the privacy of some detainees, “it would be at the risk of increased danger to everyone in the facility, including the less serious offenders.”
In what has been described as a “blistering dissent,” Justice Stephen Breyer, writing for the minority, essentially called the majority’s reasoning a bunch of hogwash.
As Justice Breyer pointed out, those confined in prison still retain basic Constitutional rights, among them the Fourth Amendment right to be free of unreasonable searches and seizures.
“A strip search that involves a stranger peering without consent at a naked individual, and in particular at the most private portions of that person’s body, is a serious invasion of privacy,” Justice Breyer said.
He noted that many other courts which have dealt with practices similar to those at issue in this case have described them as “demeaning, dehumanizing, undignified, humiliating, terrifying, unpleasant, embarrassing and repulsive, signifying degradation and submission.”
Justice Breyer said the harm to a person’s right to privacy would seem “particularly acute” where the person searched may well have had no expectation of being subject to such a search, say because “she had simply received a traffic ticket for failing to buckle a seat belt, because he had not previously paid a civil fine, or because she had been arrested for a minor trespass.”
Justice Breyer insisted that prison officials had no real justification for subjecting Mr. Florence to humiliating, degrading strip searches. In particular, he said, there was no connection between the probe of Mr. Florence’s private parts and the “squat and cough” to prison officials’ concerns about health problems or gang connections.
Moreover, the justice said, many professional organizations, including correctional associations, support a standard that forbids suspicionless strip searches. Laws in at least 10 states also prohibit such searches, the justice said, and at least seven Courts of Appeal have required reasonable suspicion that an arrestee is concealing weapons or contraband before a strip search for someone arrested for a minor offense can take place.
Justice Breyer said: “I am left without an example of any instance in which contraband was found on an individual through an inspection of their private parts or body cavities which could not have been found under a policy requiring reasonable suspicion.”
The majority decision which Justice Breyer so rightfully condemns, should give us all chills. It’s a frightening miscarriage of justice.
Can you imagine yourself being arrested and strip searched for a fine you paid but was registered unpaid because of a computer glitch? What happened to Mr. Florence could happen to any of us because of the majority decision in this case.
And, ladies, don’t think you’d be spared because you’re female. Women are subjected to strip searches just like those to which Mr. Florence was subjected. Justice Breyer pointed out that one female victim of this degrading procedure was a nun, a Sister of Divine Providence for 50 years. She was strip searched after her arrest for trespassing during an anti-war demonstration.
*
Barbara Murphy, 79, writes about controversial issues each month.