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By Kent Scheidegger et al.

Strip Searches Ruled Unconstitutional: In a divided ruling announced last Friday, the federal Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals held San Francisco's policy of strip searching all arrestees to be housed in the jail's general population unconstitutional. The lead opinion In Bull v. San Francisco by Judge Sidney Thomas addresses a class action § 1983 lawsuit brought by several plaintiffs who were strip searched at the jail before the policy was abandoned in January of 2004. In a reluctant concurring opinion, Judge Sandra Ikuta found herself bound by Ninth Circuit precedent "in tension with Supreme Court precedent". A dissent by Judge Richard Tallman was more direct, suggesting that Ninth Circuit decisions on this issue suffer from an "inherent defect in basic logic...continue to full post

Full post as published by Crime and Consequences on August 25, 2008 (boomark / email).