Earlier today, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled, in an 8-1 majority, that it was unconstitutional to strip search a teenage girl in the pursuit of contraband. The ruling comes from the case of Savana Redding, a teenager from Safford, Arizona, who – at the age of thirteen – was strip searched at her school after school authorities suspected “prescription strength ibuprofen” was hidden in her bra. No pills were ever found.
But while the court did side with Redding, it wasn’t a complete win, as the court also gave protection to the school’s officials who performed the strip search. Which makes for a confusing precedent. It’s unconstitutional to perform a strip-search on a young teen, but you won’t actually get charged for it? Huh.
Here is the court’s description of the case:
“Wilson then had Romero take Savana to the school nurse’s office to search her clothes for pills. After Romero and the nurse, Peggy Schwallier, had Savana remove her outer clothing, they told her to pull her bra out and shake it, and to pull out the elastic on her underpants, thus exposing her breasts and pelvic area to some degree.”
Writing the majority opinion on the case was, soon-to-be-retiring, Justice David Souter. He had this to say, “Savana’s subjective expectation of privacy against such a search is inherent in her account of it as embarrassing, frightening, and humiliating. … Here, the content of the suspicion failed to match the degree of intrusion.”
The sole opposition to today’s ruling was the conservative Justice Clarence Thomas.
