Free Scalia!

Hmm, this story tells us that the Supremes seemed to be OK with the strip search of the eighth grade girl by a school official searching for contraband ibuprofen.

My outrage is unabated.  And if the Captain is with me, who will stand against me, other than five Supreme Court Justices, perhaps.

My impression is that the Supremes want to spare the school district the financial loss of a civil suit:

Last year, a U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the strip search of Savana Redding was unreasonable and unconstitutional since the pills were ibuprofen. And the court held that the school officials who ordered the search were liable for damages.

But in their comments and questions, most of the justices signaled they are inclined to overturn that decision.

Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. said the school officials should be shielded from being sued since the law governing school searches had not been clear. In the past, the court has said public officials cannot be held liable for damages unless they violate a "clearly established" right.

Something is awry here:

Wolf, the ACLU lawyer, said it would "send shudders down the spine" of children across the nation if the high court approves strip searches at school.

A Justice Department lawyer urged the justices to say that strip searches are out of bounds unless officials have strong, clear evidence that a student is hiding something dangerous in his or her underwear.

The tone of the argument gave little hint the justices will set such a limit, however.

The ACLU and the DoJ seem to have a very reasonable position.  Maybe the court is positioning itself for a switcheroo - my recollection is that sometimes the questioners are tougher on the side they favor.  We should find out in late June.

Comments

[clarice]

You know it's something to watch in horror as the absurd no tolerance laws meet the incredibly stupid public school administrators isn't it?

[Sue]

Man, Tom goes forever with a thought here and a thought there and now he is pumping out thoughts so fast I can hardly keep up with him.

[Danube of Thought]

Check out the lineup of the minority in the Fourth Amendment car search case: Ginsburg, Scalia, Souter and Thomas.

You don't see that group together very often (nor do you see the other five together).

[DebinNC]

I hope Bernanke's money printing machine has a Mach 1 setting, because once parents can sue school systems we're gonna need it.

[Strawman Cometh]

Yes, Zero tolerance leads to stupid. Or vise versa. My personal tolerance for the great Zer0 ended sometime in July.

[Jim Rhoads a/k/a vjnjagvet]

DOT:

It was even more bizarre. Stevens wrote the opinion in which Thomas, Scalia, Ginsberg and Souter joined finding the search violated the Fourth Amendment. Scalia wrote a concurring opinion.

Alito wrote the dissent in which Kennedy and Roberts joined finding the search lawful. Breyer also joined Alito except as to Section IIE, and wrote a separate dissent as to that point.

[Strawman Cometh]

Deb,
INAL, but we've crossed paved over that Rubicon

[JM Hanes]

My God. This one should be a no brainer eyes closed slam dunk. Where the hell are the other parents on this, BTW? And where the hell were they? I'd rather have my kids protected from strip searches than drugs.

[Ann]

You know what, I am programming our lawyer's phone number into my honor roll daughter's cell phone tomorrow.

I don't give a carp what the school thinks. The Constitution (which I now carry in my purse) prohibits against unreasonable searches and seizures.

They have gone to far already. In our school district a parent needs to have a written excuse by a doctor or dentist for an absence to be excused. If I call or right a note it is considered an unexcused absence on her record. So I don't even call anymore when she is sick and unable to go to school. Why go to the trouble. She is still considered delinquent.

When pirates on the open seas have more rights than my honor roll daughter is the day I quit waving our flag and cry to the tune of Edelwise: "Bless my homeland forever".

When we let them strip search our children for aspirin we should all be sent to a GITMO and really tortured!

[Jane]

I'd rather have my kids protected from strip searches than drugs.

Now that's an interesting thought.

Has a parent ever sued a school because their kids got drugs there?

[sbw]

If the problem the court faces is "damages" then it can signal in its decision that excessive damages would be reversed.

It needs to signal to legislatures about the weaknesses of the law that need to be corrected, and it needs to signal to the tort lawyers that sometimes effective damages can be laughter -- and they can take their percentage from that.

[bad]

Well, don't ask O about the constitutionality of anything. His spokespeep now claims OBAMA DID NOT TEACH ON CONSTITUTIONAL LAW. LUN via Powerline

Helen Thomas: Why is the president blocking habeas corpus from prisoners at Bagram? I thought he taught constitutional law. And these prisoners have been there . . .

Robert Gibbs: You're incorrect that he taught on constitutional law.

WTH? Their best defense on the Gitmo/Bagram issue is to abandon the position the lefties have been crowing over for so long, that the president was a constitutional law proffesor? But now he's not.

WTH???????

[bad]

O/T but another WTH:

David Kellermann, the acting chief financial officer of mortgage giant Freddie Mac, was found dead at his home Wednesday morning in what police said was an apparent suicide.

Mary Ann Jennings, director of public information for the Fairfax County, Va., Police Department, said Kellermann was found dead in his Reston, Va., home. The 41-year-old Kellermann has been Freddie Mac's chief financial officer since September.

This is ominous sounding.

[Jane]

Okay here is my latest thought on the whole strip search thing -

Isn't it the parents job to make sure kids don't do drugs not the school? And if so, the whole strip search thing seems very very wrong.

And frankly I think a strip search of a 13 year old could be a hell of a lot more damaging than drugs for the most part.

[bad]

Some teachers, male and female, have been found guilty of sexual misconduct involving students. Allowing teachers to strip search a child without a parent present could endanger that child and expose a child to possible molestation.

[Jane]

WEll I have this big theory that sexuality is imprinted on people based on experience. That's why the molested end up molesting. I'd hate for a kid's first brush with sexuality to be a strip search.

[George Ditter]

Normally in order to be able to sue a public entity under Sec. 1983 you have to establish that the action violated a "clearly established right" I haven't researched this but I suppose the argument is that that the right against some type of strip search is not clearly established. Clearly strip searches are permitted in a number of circumstances. The Supremes could rule that a rule against strip searches had not been clearly established without agreeing that this strip search was justified and could hand a win to the School at the same time telling future defendants that strip searches are a violation of a clearly established right. By the way, would be happier about the strip search if they found crack cocaine or rat poison that the kid was going to put in the meatloaf?

[bad]

George, I see this situation as one that could have been easily avoided with some common sense on the part of the school. They knew they weren't looking for crack cocaine or rat poison. They suspected her of possessing Advil.

[Jane]

I don't see why they couldn't have held her and called her mother in BEFORE they searched her.

[bad]

I agree Jane. What they did was just SO STUPID. We hold students to zero tolerance, perhaps teachers and administrators should be held to the same standard.

BTW, do those idiots still have their jobs?

[memomachine]

Hmmm.

So she was strip-searched for ... 'Advil'?

Am I missing something? Is there some nefarious use of ibuprofen that I haven't encountered anywhere? I know some kids smoke 'Smarties', the -candy- ... yeah I know, so nothing is really beyond bounds.

But ibuprofen?

[bad]

Yes, memo, they thought she was going to relieve a bunch of cramps... and we can't have that now can we...

[clarice]

zero tolerance means zero tolerance..this is not the first time kids have ben beset by dummy school administrators for possession of ordinary over the counter pain relievers. And get this--in states like California, stuff like aspirins must okayed by the kids' parents and have to be kept by the school nurse and doled out that way but the kid can be taken by the nurse to get an abortion and the parents have no right to know about that.

We live in an increasingly irrational world.

[bad]

Clarice, I was wondering if someone as young as 13 could get an abortion without parental permission.

[matt]

my daughter's HS/Jr.HS is Peyton Place. Principal (married) left last year because of an affair with a married teacher. Baseball coach was not fired because the 2 seniors he was having affairs with were over 18. Football coach 5 years ago in prison for an incestuous relationship with his daughter. Most recently a teacher arrested for child molestation with a 12 year old student. Kiddie porn found at his home. the world is, in fact, going to hell.

[sylvia]

What's to prevent any perv teacher from saying he/she heard/saw a kid with drugs and ordering a strip search in their office whenever they feel like it?

Besides, a search without a warrant is only allowed to stop a crime from being committed, not for a school infraction. I would say a bodily search especially, as one could argue school lockers and such are school property. They should have just sent the girl home if they were so concerned about it. If it were more serious, say a heroin syringe or a knife, they should have called the cops.