Legal News

On Tap at the Supreme Court: Strip-Searches at School

By Ashby Jones

The Supreme Court’s current term, as an article by Legal Times’s Tony Mauro reminds us, is heading into its home stretch. And its final “argument cycle,” as Mauro puts it, contains some provocative cases, to say the least:

It's the final argument cycle of the current term, stocked with cases that could define the Roberts Court anew, on issues ranging from search and seizure to Iraqi immunity, affirmative action to voting rights. Parties include a swashbuckling CBS newsman, a middle school student accused of possessing ibuprofen, and a group of white New Haven, Conn., firefighters.

For now, everyone seems to be buzzing about a case to be argued tomorrow called Safford Unified School District #1 v. Redding. At issue: whether officials at an Arizona middle school acted within the bounds of the Fourth Amendment when they strip-searched a female student after suspecting she was hiding prescription-strength Ibuprofen in her underpants. (The suspicion was based largely on a “tip” from a fellow student.)

The New York Times this morning does not dissemble:

The Supreme Court has held that to satisfy the Fourth Amendment, a search of a student by school officials must be reasonable at the start. The search of Savana was not. It was based entirely on the self-serving statement of a student who was trying to deflect blame from herself. . . As the San Francisco-based United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit observed, it is "common sense" that telling a 13-year-old girl to disrobe to partially reveal her breasts and pelvis because she might possess ibuprofen - "an infraction that poses imminent danger to no one" - was unreasonable.

The Washington Post views the case differently:

But does this possible lapse in judgment amount to a constitutional breach so egregious that school officials should be subjected as individuals to possible legal liability? Neither the law nor common sense compels such a conclusion. . . . The law has long given school officials special leeway to search lockers and backpacks to enable them to better protect students in their care. . . . The Supreme Court should strike down the lower-court ruling. School officials must have the flexibility to act quickly and decisively to avert all manner of danger. Fear of being sued for making reasonable if controversial judgment calls will only chill these efforts.

LB Readers, let’s frame the issue this way: If you found out that this had happened to your son or daughter, would you sue?

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on April 20, 2009 (boomark / email).