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Justices Approve Strip-Searches for Any Offense

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C

ClovingWestbrook

Banned
Link

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Monday ruled by a 5-to-4 vote that officials may strip-search people arrested for any offense, however minor, before admitting them to jails even if the officials have no reason to suspect the presence of contraband.

Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, joined by the court’s conservative wing, wrote that courts are in no position to second-guess the judgments of correctional officials who must consider not only the possibility of smuggled weapons and drugs but also public health and information about gang affiliations.

About 13 million people are admitted each year to the nation’s jails, Justice Kennedy wrote.

Under Monday’s ruling, he wrote, "every detainee who will be admitted to the general population may be required to undergo a close visual inspection while undressed."

Justice Stephen G. Breyer, writing for the four dissenters, said strip-searches were “a serious affront to human dignity and to individual privacy” and should be used only when there was good reason to do so.

The decision endorses a more recent trend, from appeals courts in Atlanta, San Francisco and Philadelphia, in allowing searches no matter how minor the charge. Some potential examples cited by dissenting judges in the lower courts and by Justice Breyer on Monday included violating a leash law, driving without a license and failing to pay child support.

The Supreme Court case arose from the arrest of Albert W. Florence in New Jersey in 2005. Mr. Florence was in the passenger seat of his BMW when a state trooper pulled his wife, April, over for speeding. A records search revealed an outstanding warrant based on an unpaid fine. (The information was wrong; the fine had been paid.)

Mr. Florence was held for a week in jails in two counties, and he was strip-searched twice. There is some dispute about the details but general agreement that he was made to stand naked in front of a guard who required him to move intimate parts of his body. The guards did not touch him.

“Turn around,” Mr. Florence, in an interview last year, recalled being told by jail officials. “Squat and cough. Spread your cheeks.”

“I consider myself a man’s man,” said Mr. Florence, a finance executive for a car dealership. “Six-three. Big guy. It was humiliating. It made me feel less than a man.”

The federal courts of appeal were divided over whether blanket policies requiring jailhouse strip-searches of people arrested for minor offenses violate the Fourth Amendment, which bars unreasonable searches. At least seven had ruled that such searches were proper only if there was a reasonable suspicion that the arrested person had weapons or contraband.

Justice Kennedy said the most relevant precedent was Bell v. Wolfish, which was decided by a 5-to-4 vote in 1979. It allowed strip-searches of people held at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in New York after “contact visits” with outsiders.

As in the Bell case, Justice Kennedy wrote, “the undoubted security imperatives involved in jail supervision override the assertion that some detainees must be exempt from the more invasive search procedures at issue absent reasonable suspicion of a concealed weapon or other contraband.”

The majority and dissenting opinions drew differing conclusions from the available statistics and anecdotes about the amount of contraband introduced into jails and how much strip-searches add to pat-downs and metal detectors.

“It is not surprising that correctional officials have sought to perform thorough searches at intake for disease, gang affiliation and contraband,” Justice Kennedy wrote. “Jails are often crowded, unsanitary and dangerous places.”

“There is a substantial interest,” he added, “in preventing any new inmate, either of his own will or as a result of coercion, from putting all who live or work at these institutions at even greater risk when he is admitted to the general population.”

In separate concurrences, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. emphasized the limits of the majority opinion. Chief Justice Roberts, quoting from an earlier decision, said that exceptions to Monday’s ruling were still possible “to ensure that we ‘not embarrass the future.’ ”

Justice Alito wrote that different rules may apply for people arrested but not held with the general population or whose detentions had “not been reviewed by a judicial officer.”

In his dissent in the case, Florence v. County of Burlington, No. 10-945, Justice Breyer wrote that the Fourth Amendment should be understood to prohibit strip-searches of people arrested for minor offenses not involving drugs or violence unless officials had a reasonable suspicion that the people to be searched were carrying contraband.
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D

Darklord

Banned
America....Jesus Christ. There needs to be a full blown revolt, riots in the streets or something. It's gotten absurd over there now.
 
L

LuchaShaq

Banned
Just another reason why to avoid cops at all cops unless you personally know the officer or you can help catch a child molester.

Can't think of a single group of people even gang members/kkk members/Westboro Church psychos I'd rather avoid more than police.
 
C

ClovingWestbrook

Banned
LuchaShaq said:
Just another reason why to avoid cops at all cops unless you personally know the officer or you can help catch a child molester.

Can't think of a single group of people even gang members/kkk members/Westboro Church psychos I'd rather avoid more than police.
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really? REALLY?
 
G

giga

Member
Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, joined by the court’s conservative wing, wrote that courts are in no position to second-guess the judgments of correctional officials who must consider not only the possibility of smuggled weapons and drugs but also public health and information about gang affiliations.
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Why you doing this Anthony? I thought you were my brother…
 
G

GaimeGuy

Volunteer Deputy Campaign Director, Obama for America '16
Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, joined by the court’s conservative wing, wrote that courts are in no position to second-guess the judgments of correctional officials who must consider not only the possibility of smuggled weapons and drugs but also public health and information about gang affiliations.
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Uhhh, it's not about questioning the judgement of officers. It's about the rights of individuals in custody.

FFS, what's the point of having a judicial system if you'r ejust going to defer to the authority of the executive and/or legislative officials.
 
J

jon bones

hot hot hanuman-on-man action
LuchaShaq said:
Just another reason why to avoid cops at all cops unless you personally know the officer or you can help catch a child molester.

Can't think of a single group of people even gang members/kkk members/Westboro Church psychos I'd rather avoid more than police.
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as a bearded brown dude living in nyc... i kind of agree. i see no reason why i'd ever want to be in contact with a police officer, ever.

if someone was breaking into my home and i called the police they'd probably kill me and let the burglar go.
 
C

ClovingWestbrook

Banned
Dechaios said:
Maybe he was exaggerating but it doesn't change the fact that the police are scary as fuck and their system is now designed to target innocents and protect each other if they feel like it.
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Oh, I don't disagree with that. Hopefully he was exaggerating because I'll take the popo in my presence over the KKK.
 
E

Emitan

Member
LuchaShaq said:
Just another reason why to avoid cops at all cops unless you personally know the officer or you can help catch a child molester.

Can't think of a single group of people even gang members/kkk members/Westboro Church psychos I'd rather avoid more than police.
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Next time a cop pulls me over I'll tell him to leave me alone.
 
L

LuchaShaq

Banned
ClovingSteam said:
really? REALLY?
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100% serious

Police in America get slaps on the wrist for essentially murdering people (best recent example the murder in the BART station in San Fran). I don't want to be around anyone with a gun that has essentially noone to answer to unless they take a shotgun to an infant.

KKK dude would just talk shit and then run the instant anyone was menacing towards them.

Westboro psycho would just scream and then get excited if you reacted so they could sue you if you lost your cool.

Gang banger won't give a shit about your existence 99% of the time, worst case scenario try to sell you drugs unless you actively were starting shit.


Billychu said:
Next time a cop pulls me over I'll tell him to leave me alone.
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Doesn't make sense, once you already are getting pulled over it's too late to avoid them.


jon bones said:
as a bearded brown dude living in nyc... i kind of agree. i see no reason why i'd ever want to be in contact with a police officer, ever.

if someone was breaking into my home and i called the police they'd probably kill me and let the burglar go.
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When I caught someone who broke into my home and called the cops they stuck me in a room at the station and tried to question me for about 3 hours for some insane reason. After 45 minutes of repeating the story over and over I asked for a lawyer/am I free to go over and over until they finally let me out even though I had to fucking walk home. Have no idea what their issue is, like I kidnapped some 17 year old kid and held him down in my kitchen for 15 minutes so I could call the cops and lose my whole night of sleep? Still to this day I have no clue what they were getting at.
 
F

Foxy Fox 39

Banned
We're not quite like the frog in the pot. We know its happening. We...just are too lazy to jump out.

Unless they mess with our internet...
 
C

CornBurrito

Member
Looks like it is time for me to become a cop.

Hopefully they can include cavity searches at a later date. We got to protect our streets!
 
F

Foxy Fox 39

Banned
Yeah. I've been planning on getting out of America. Not sure where to go. I want to either go to Canada or France.

Might try Quebec...best of both?
 
L

LuchaShaq

Banned
Billychu said:
So I guess your avoiding cops plan is pretty shitty
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I'm just going to assume you're trolling if you can't explain yourself beyond "... shitty plan".

When on foot and see police? Go the other way/cross the street away from them. See a crime that isn't rape/murder/child molestation? Don't risk calling them. When driving have a radar detector if you speed and if you don't speed you'll be fine in that department usually.

It's not that complicated.
 
N

nyong

Banned
Darklord said:
America....Jesus Christ. There needs to be a full blown revolt, riots in the streets or something. It's gotten absurd over there now.
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America already locks up a higher percentage of its population than anywhere else on Earth, with the exception of North Korea. The "Land of the Free" is ironically less free than China in the most important benchmark of all.

And yes, it may well lead to violence.
 
A

Agnostic

but believes in Chael
We need to start shitting and pissing all over the room if we're in a situation where they are strip searching you for minor bullshit. I'll even start jerking one out. It's time to start acting like animals if they're going to treat us like one.
 
H

Hoo-doo

Banned
Man, I always really wanted to move to the states after I got my degree.
Not even sure why, but there's something about the US that appeals to me greatly, can't even put my finger on it.

But you guys aren't painting such a rosy picture here, making it sound like a goddamn warzone.
 
N

nyong

Banned
Agnostic said:
We need to start shitting and pissing all over the room if we're in a situation where they are strip searching you for minor bullshit. I'll even start jerking one out. It's time to start acting like an animal if they're going to treat us like one.
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Good luck with that. You'd go from a routine arrest to never seeing the light of day again. And nobody would notice.
 
E

ElectricBlue187

Member
Hoo-doo said:
Man, I always really wanted to move to the states after I got my degree.
Not even sure why, but there's something about the US that appeals to me greatly, can't even put my finger on it.

But you guys aren't painting such a rosy picture here, making it sound like a goddamn warzone.
Click to expand...

The US is a nice place on the whole. Just make sure you never have any involvement with our horrid justice system and you'll be fine
 
K

Kosmo

Banned
...and THIS would be a perfectly good use for the body scanners. Take them out of the airport and put them in the police stations.
 
C

commedieu

Banned
I agree on the whole, avoiding police thing.

For one simple reason, when police are behind me, i've fallen into these situations;

.Pulled over and asked if my vehicle, is mine, show registration, and they drive away. No report of a stolen car in the area, no, just "Is this your car?"
.Flashed by the cop light @ night.
.Pulled over, pulled out of a car, threatened with having my head smashed on the hood of my car if I didn't stop asking questions.
.Car trashed for a search, to find absolutely nothing. Busted headliner..

Why would I want to go through this shit? Avoiding police has become a secondary function while driving. And I've had no problems since I decided to do this.

The police in Los Angeles do act like gang members to protect a certain demographic of people.
 
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