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CADC: 2002 law of misdemeanor strip searches not well settled, so jailers have qualified immunity

By John Wesley Hall, Jr.

The law of misdemeanor strip searches not well settled in 2002, and so the jailers have qualified immunity from suit. But, there is a biting dissent. Bame v. Dillard, 09-5330 (D.C. Cir. March 25, 2011): The named plaintiffs filed this class action suit for damages against Todd Walther Dillard, a former United States Marshal for the Superior Court of the District of Columbia, claiming that, after being arrested during a demonstration in September 2002, they were unconstitutionally strip searched by Deputy U.S. Marshals under Dillard’s direction. According to the plaintiffs, caselaw had by then clearly established that the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States prohibited strip searching a person arrested for a non-violent, non-drug related misdemeanor absent a particularized reason to suspect the arrestee was concealing contraband or weapons about his person...continue to full post

Full post as published by Fourth Amendment on March 26, 2011 (boomark / email).