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CA3: Follows CA9 and CA11 to broaden jail strip searches

By John Wesley Hall, Jr.

The Third Circuit follows the Ninth and Eleventh and holds that a broader jail strip search policy is reasonable. Florence v. Bd. of Chosen Freeholders of Burlington, 2010 U.S. App. LEXIS 19548 (3d Cir. September 21, 2010): Since Bell [v. Wolfish] was decided, ten circuit courts of appeals applied its balancing test and uniformly concluded that an arrestee charged with minor offenses may not be strip searched consistent with the Fourth Amendment unless the prison has reasonable suspicion that the arrestee is concealing a weapon or other contraband. Things changed in 2008, however, when the en banc Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit reversed its prior precedent and held that a jail's blanket policy of strip searching all arrestees upon entering the facility was reasonable even in the absence of individualized suspicion...continue to full post

Full post as published by Fourth Amendment on September 22, 2010 (boomark / email).