Legal Commentary

9th Circuit Upholds Strip Searches of Arrestees

By Jeralyn

The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals today upheld San Francisco's policy of strip-searching arrestees without individualized suspicion they were concealing contraband. The opinion is here.

"The record reveals a pervasive and serious problem with contraband inside San Francisco's jails, as well as numerous instances in which contraband was found during a search, indicating that arrestees' use of body cavities as a method of smuggling drugs, weapons, and items used to escape custody is an immediate and troubling problem for San Francisco jail administrators," Ikuta wrote for the majority. She said the policy was reasonably adopted by the jail for "maintaining security for inmates and employees by preventing contraband smuggling."

..."[W]e conclude that San Francisco's policy requiring strip searches of all arrestees classified for custodial housing in the general population was facially reasonable under the Fourth Amendment, notwithstanding the lack of individualized reasonable suspicion as to the individuals searched."

Hopefully the case will now get to the Supreme Court as other federal districts disagree. In fact, even the Supreme Court this year put some limits on strip searches. [More...]

The Supreme Court, in a slightly different context, recently reaffirmed the idea that a strip search policy violates the Fourth Amendment when there is little evidence that the searches will result in the discovery of contraband.
In Safford Unified Sch. Dist. #1 v. Redding, 129 S. Ct. 2633 (2009), the Court held that a strip search of a schoolgirl was unconstitutional
in part because the school could not show any evidence that the search would bear fruit. See id. at 2642 (holding that “the content of the
suspicion” must match “the degree of intrusion” and that “the categorically extreme intrusiveness of a search” requires “some justification in suspected facts” beyond “general background possibilities”)...

The dissent begins at page 45 and has a much better perspective.

"A policy that so severely erodes human dignity and intrudes upon constitutional rights requires strong justification," Thomas wrote. "The conclusion is clear: the city's policy of routine, mandatory, suspicionless body cavity searches of those arrested for minor offenses who pose no credible risk of concealing contraband is unconstitutional."

Full post as published by TalkLeft on February 09, 2010 (boomark / email).