Or maybe it's Animal House. Via NCinDC @ Flickr.
I am pleasantly surprised to report that the Supreme Court ruled 8-1 against the Arizona school that strip searched Savana Redding. Redding, who was 13 years old at the time, was ordered to remove her clothes and shake out her underwear because she was suspected of carrying pills. They turned out to be two Ibuprofen. The Court ruled that the middle school went too far, violating the Fourth Amendment ban on unreasonable searches. However, they ruled that school officials cannot be held financially liable. Read the full opinion here.
“The court’s decision sends a clear signal to school officials that they can strip search students only in the most extraordinary situations,” said Redding’s lawyer, Adam Wolf. It’s good news, but not a huge victory for civil liberties. Strip searches are still allowed but they will happen less frequently. School officials have to meet a higher burden of evidence in order to strip search students. “This other kid says she’s got drugs” is not sufficient.
Naturally, Thomas argued for a return to in loco parentis standards in his dissent. The man’s never met a police state he didn’t like. “It was eminently reasonable to conclude the backpack was empty because Redding was secreting the pills in a place should thought no one would look,” he said.
:shudder:
I really DO NOT get Clarence Thomas. He grew up poor and black in a little segregated town, and yet somehow in every decision, he backs The Man. The Man can do no wrong in his eyes. It’s like he’s got Stockholm Syndrome.
He identifies with the oppressor. Happens to a lot of us. Still shitty though.
Identifying with his oppressor is undoubtedly why he’s such an angry, bitter, humorless old man. Deep down he must know how fucked-up he is. Ever see him interviewed? It’s remarkable how angry and unhappy he is despite all he’s achieved.
Thomas has a particular hangup about upbringing. He definitely thinks it is good for kids to be…shall we say, disciplined. After all, look how well adjusted he is! Yikes. Anyway, Becky, have you ever read his autobiography? He displays so many therapy-worthy personality “quirks” with so little insight that it is kind of astonishing. Special man. He’s actually growing on me because he is obviously so tortured.
It’s easier for me to feel sorry for him when he is one against seven. I like to think a certain Justice Ginsberg shamed the boys into behaving on this one.
I would also like to say though that I think part of the reason they were able to galvanize support from the conservative catholics on the court was because there is a certain “modesty” message to a 13 year old girl not being strip searched. Also because she didn’t have any drugs.
@JDRegent: Yes, I read some of his autobiography. He’s a tormented man. A really unhappy childhood with very little affection will do that to a person. It makes perfect sense that he considered the priesthood too–there’s no better place for a victimized, lonely person with autocratic tendencies.
And I completely agree about the modesty message. I suspect that if the strip-searching had been conducted on a 13 year old boy the Catholic conservatives might have felt differently. Scalia, Alito and Roberts have daughters, and I’m sure they got all paternalistic hearing that story.
I seriously was so happy when I heard how this case came down. Seriously, like JD says I know that part of it was probably due to the effect of the concept of modesty and that she didn’t actually have drugs but all in all I have to say I DONT CARE. I am simply THRILLED to have a case come out of the USSC that upholds a citizens right to not be subjected to an unreasonable search. THRILLED.
Oh, if only this also applied to the police outside of schools, because “This other kid says she’s got drugs” seems to be plenty of probable cause to search your house, esp. if they have already decided to search your house.
BC – well, not exactly; while I agree that the war on [some people who use some] drugs has eviscerated liberty rights, we’re not yet at the point where suspicion of having *ibuprofen* could get an adult strip-searched. Which is the thing–not just Thomas, but also many ‘reasonable’ folks, believe children have no rights at all. (And I do think it’s true that most mainstream political theories have trouble with children [and the elderly, and anyone not able-bodied], treating them as sort of an afterthought / exception, despite the fact that everybody is one at some point.)
Much as I really hate most aspects of Thomas’ jurisprudence (Hamdi being the worst example), much of what people say about him also bothers me. I mean, gosh, maybe he’s such an angry guy because those who disagree with him refuse to take him seriously as an intelligent person who acts for reasons, instead writing him off as a mental case, a puppet for Scalia, or an Uncle Tom? Back when I hung out with right-wing law students (sigh, I know, don’t ask), most thought Thomas, not Scalia, was the one to admire; thought him more principled in his reasoning. Again – I think he has -bad- principles, and I don’t think he’s all that consistent, but I get squicked out at how Thomas is always the one reduced to a paper cut-out or a psych diagnosis.
X: It was not my understanding that the girl was suspected of having ibuprofen specifically, but rather “pills” which can be legal or illegal for adults and children.
Also, a search warrant will absolutely get an adult strip searched, it’s just a couple more steps down the line.
I like how he starts off his dissent by quoting and citing his OWN CONCURRING OPINION, from 2007, in support of his advocacy for a “return” to in loco parentis, a doctrine which hasn’t held sway for at least 20 years if not longer. Not only dicta, but irrelevant egocentric dicta.
I also feel compelled to point out, vis a vis the concept of “in loco parentis,” that I cannot imagine a situation in which my parents would have STRIP-SEARCHED me. Not even if they thought I was using, I don’t know, coke or heroin or something as a 13-year-old. I mean, I guess I can’t speak with total authority because I was such a goody-goody as a kid so the scenario is kind of outside the realm of possibility, but hypothetically, I truly cannot imagine either of my folks strip-searching me for any reason at all. Nor would they abdicate that right to a school official.