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CA9 (en banc): School strip search for ibuprofen clearly violated the Fourth Amendment so no qualified immunity

By John Wesley Hall, Jr.

School strip search for ibuprofen clearly violated the Fourth Amendment. Therefore, there was no qualified immunity. Redding v. Safford, 2008 U.S. App. LEXIS 14756 (9th Cir. July 11, 2008) (en banc, 6-5): On the basis of an uncorroborated tip from the culpable eighth grader, public middle school officials searched futilely for prescription-strength ibuprofen by strip-searching thirteen-year-old honor student Savana Redding. We conclude that the school officials violated Savana's Fourth Amendment right to be free from unreasonable search and seizure. The strip search of Savana was neither "justified at its inception," New Jersey v. T.L.O., 469 U.S. 325, 341, 105 S. Ct. 733, 83 L. Ed. 2d 720 (1985), nor, as a grossly intrusive search of a middle school girl to locate pills with the potency of two over-the-counter Advil capsules, "reasonably related in scope to the circumstances" giving rise to its initiation...continue to full post

Full post as published by Fourth Amendment on July 15, 2008 (boomark / email).