Home -> Law Blog Directory -> Criminal Law Blogs -> Fourth Amendment

Criminal Law

: Fourth Amendment

CA1: Forced surgery of inmate to retreive smuggled cell phone was unreasonable search

By John Wesley Hall, Jr.

Forced surgery to find a cell phone in plaintiff prison inmates rectum was shown to be an unreasonable search. It was not just a "medical procedure." Sanchez v. Pereira-Castillo, 2009 U.S. App. LEXIS 28250 (1st Cir. December 23, 2009): 1. Were the Procedures Performed at the Medical Center "Searches" Within the Scope of the Fourth Amendment? To determine whether the rectal examinations and the exploratory surgery implicated the Fourth Amendment, we must first determine whether they constituted searches for evidence or legitimate medical procedures. As will be discussed further below, it is impossible to reconcile the allegations in the complaint with the district court's conclusion that these procedures were "medical decisions made exclusively by physicians...continue to full post

Full post as published by Fourth Amendment on December 25, 2009 (boomark / email).