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Subscribe to RSSWASHINGTON -- Siding with security needs over privacy rights, the Supreme Court ruled Monday that jailers may subject people arrested for minor offenses to invasive strip searches.
By a 5-4 vote, the court rejected a challenge from a New Jersey man who argued it's unconstitutional to force everyone to strip down for inspection. Albert Florence was arrested by a state trooper because of an error in the state's records that mistakenly said he was wanted on an outstanding warrant for an unpaid fine. Even if the warrant had been valid, failure to pay a fine is not a crime in New Jersey.
Florence was held for a week in two different jails before the charges were dropped. But at each jail, he was required to shower with delousing soap and undergo a strip search.
Florence's lawyers argued such searches are unconstitutional unless police have reason to believe the subject is carrying a weapon or drugs.
But the court's majority said it's difficult for jail officials to know who's dangerous and who isn't among the 13 million prisoners they process each year because criminal records are often not available at the time of intake. The majority opinion was written by Justice Anthony Kennedy.
The court also noted that Timothy McVeigh, the Oklahoma City bomber, was initially arrested for not having a license plate on his car and that one of the 9/11 terrorists was stopped and ticketed for speeding just two days before hijacking Flight 93. "People detained for minor offenses can turn out to be the most devious and dangerous criminals," the court said.
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Rest assured anybody who runs around telling you about saving your liberty, will do everything in their power to relieve you of it!
We are no longer the land of the free, EVERYONE is owned now and it's only getting worse. I want to know how the hell something like this passed without people raising hell about this. Yes I believe in protecting our country but not at the expense of our freedoms. I hate to see whats happening to this country.
What has this country come to? While a pat down search for minor offenses is acceptable and understandable, strip searches for minor offenses most certainly is not. I'm actually mortified and embarassed at what this beautiful country of ours has turned into today! Strip searches for minor offenses is just so, so wrong! I would not live in any other country, but I'm not as proud of this country as I used to be.
Hey, remember when Bush II said "They hate us for our freedom" referring to the terrorists? What do they hate us for now?
Obama has turned America into a pathetic joke.
The justices that voted for this were not nominated by Obama. Not one of them. Do you have any point at all?
yep those Regan/Bush/Bush appointments to the highest court in the land...the gift that keeps on giving. I wonder if a strip search would have uncovered a DNA match to the pubic hair on the coke can but only one of the justices would know that
You libs wanted big government, well here it comes. Wait until your 'required' to take your free birth control after a certain age.
Rob...you do realize that none of the people who voted for this were appointed by a Democrat, right? Or did you read the article at all?
Justice Anthony Kennedy, although appointed by Reagan consistently disappoints the right by voting for the left. He may have an (R) but his policies smack of Arlen Specter. Kennedy wrote this btw.
Buffaloes, yes, but without needing to, Obama inserted the U.S. gov on the side of strip searches. So a big government person (BHO) is involved.
What did Rushbo Limpbaugh say about Drug Addicts?
Neal...thank you for your intelligence. Nice to get an actual comment. I am unclear on how Obama inserted on this one. It shows a straight up the courts thing in the article. Help me out.
Rob Kennedy voted for the majority decision on this one
as a matter fact he WROTE the decision
This is an incredible, outrageous, callous, arrogant, and ignorant ruling. Perhaps now we will finally begin as a body politic to understand that our choices at the polls have a direct effect on our civil liberties because of the nominations to the courts, and especially the Supreme Court that the ruling party can make.
We have allowed conservagtives to seed the Supreme Court and the Federal bench with little regard for their thinly veiled plot to do so for the last several decades. Now we are begining to pay the price. We have seen the SCOTUS select a president who started two wars and allowed the financial sector to practically crash the economy. We have seen the SCOTUS ruin the electoral system by allowing corporate money and billionaires to use unlimitted funds to pervert the democratic nature of the system. We may soon see them ruin the first serious step toward a fair and reasonable helath care system that this country has ever had, depending on their ruling on the AHCA. And now they have ruled that any single one of us, if arrested for a traffic offense, or for not paying for a prior ticket, or for any minor offense immaginable can be stripped naked by a local jailer as a matter of routine procedure.
What in the world rules the conservative mind to make it so coercive and callous? Justice requires that the first victims of unwarranted strip searches must be all the conservative law makers and judges, including the conservative majority on the SCOTUS. I could just see Scalia and Thomas getting arrested for smoking cigars in a government building and having to strip down without raising vociferous objections to the cops.
I now this may be a crazy thing to say....but if you dont want to get strip searched at Jail....then dont do anything that will get you put in jail...is it that hard?
if life was that grand
Didn't read it at all, did you, Blake? The guy did nothing. It was an administrative error.
Need to search the Supreme Court to see if they are hiding a brain. This is outrageous. What next public flogging and dunking chair... Maybe the cops should just be allowed to shoot anyone on the street that they think might be up to no good..
hahahahahaa
search for a brain
hehehehe
It never ceases to amaze me the decisions by a few individuals that affect so many. We the people have elected these individuals that for the most part vote on personal agenda's and not in the interest of their constituants....those who voted them in. Granted, supreme court positions are appointed... but...by those we elect. We have seen our rights reduced with the Patriot Act and Homeland Security all in the name of a safer America. In reality it has given way to a carte blanc invasion of our personal rights. If you have ever seen the movie V for Vendetta you get a clue as to where we are headed. When I saw it all I could do was see the similarities to the Bush administration and the Homeland Security bullcrap we have been thrust into by our elected officials. Face it people, we are losing our rights by the very people we have put into office. Everyone needs to vote and get the right people in. Don't just keep voting in incumbants because your not sure. I would love to see Congress spend a session on just getting rid of obsolete laws and outdated legislation that still affect americans today. I personally do not like the direction America is headed. But one thing is for sure. Only we the people can change it....one vote at a time. It is the people that must demand strict conrtrol of lobbiests and break up the congressional good ol boys and girls club.
Remember: The People Should Not Be Afraid Of the Government. The Government Should Be Afraid Of The People.
The Supreme Court is ruling that every pervert on any police force anywhere in America can pick and choose who they are going to arrest by who they would like to see naked. And these people call themselves conservatives?
Dang, so Cindy Crawford could be strip searched? I wonder if I can talk my wife into letting me apply for one of those jobs. How much does a guy have to pay each month for the job? I love Justice Kennedy's reasoning. By the same logic, every serial killer drank milk as a child so drinking milk indicates a predisposition to murder. Let's strip search everybody just to be safe.
Ken:
Apply with GeoGroup/CCA(Corrections Corporation of America. They run the private, for-profit deportation camps for undocumenteds and illegals, who have no rights and you can do whatever you like.
We need to return to a truly Independent Supreme Court... NOT One Influenced by how much money their Family Members get from the Mega Corporations as Lobbyist.
So what are you doing to protect your Children's & Grand Children's future from these Mega Corporations?
At least OWS is trying to bring about Real Change in America and stop the revolving door between these corrupt Politicians in Washington DC and the Mega Corporations Power & Influence!
Join US...Join the Occupation to Stop the Prostitution of Our Courts, Our Government, and Our Politicians by Demanding a Separation of Corporation & State on May 1st 2012 (if not sooner)!
Our Children deserve an American Spring!
While they urinate, defecate and copulate in public parks while violating a host of civil statutes. When the OWS decides to peacefully protest (that includes not shouting and not blocking other people's way) instead of looking and acting like lazy, ignorant slob drug-users, some of might take them seriously.
How do I the training I need to get a job as a jail guard? Too bad I wasn't there when Hallie Barry was busted for DUI.
FU and your 5-4 decisions
Can anyone honestly identify with their party anymore?
The court also noted that Timothy McVeigh, the Oklahoma City bomber, was initially arrested for not having a license plate on his car and that one of the 9/11 terrorists was stopped and ticketed for speeding just two days before hijacking Flight 93. "People detained for minor offenses can turn out to be the most devious and dangerous criminals," the court said.
What does this have to do with strip searches?! Did McVeigh have a truck bomb in his underwear or did one of the 9/11 terrorists have a box cutter or airplane in his underroos? That was a really asinine comment from the court.
We have the Highest Incarceration Rates in the World because Prison has become a Money Making proposition.
Just wait until Republicans Privatize the Prisons, then Prison will become a real money maker!
What do you mean 'wait until they privatize the prisons? They already are.
I spent two years in a privately-run deportation camp for 'illegals'.I wasn't 'illegal' USCIS lost my adoption paper and I couldn't provide them with a copy because my parents didn't tell me I was adopted before they passed away. Had legal BC, DL and SS card but those aren't proof of citizenship.
ICE/DHS asks congress for $141 per person per night for each immigrant, either illegal or, like me, simply undocumented, they detain.
$141 per night per person = $51,465 a year for each person detained
A private facility like GEO Group/Corrections Corporation goes to ICE and says hey, we'll charge you $98 a night per each immigration detainee you place with us.
$98 per night per person = $35,770 a year for each person detained
So DHS gets to keep that other $15,695 per person.
Now GEO/CCA saves on money by getting detainees to do their own cleaning, wash their own clothing, cook detainee camp meals. So they don't have to hire outside services to do that. In exchange for working around the deportation camp the detainees are given $1 a day. One days's worth of work is a stamp, another day equals a pencil, another day gets a small pad of paper, one more day equals an envelope. If there is no one on the outside who can put money in an account for you, it takes a week to earn enough to write letter and send it out, and since phone calls are charged at $10 per 5 minutes, two weeks' work buys one phone call.
In the meantime food is served with maggots and we are told there's no money in the budget to cook more and we have to eat it or wait. Eating utensils run out because 'there's not enough money in the budget'. Each inmate is issued a jumpsuit and underwear, only women with very heavy breasts or who are lactating get bras because there's no money for all of us to get one. underwear can be handed out to detainees still crusted with blood from another woman's period because there wasn't enough detergent to wash the underwear before it was reassigned. Refusal to wear get you labeled a slut.
And you don't have he right to ask that a female guard perform strip and body cavity searches--you get whoever's here. Wanna guess how many male guards wanted to work the 'single female, 18-25' pod on search days?
Who's old enough to remember when people said things like: "I'll take this all the way to the Supreme Court". Don't waste your time. This is the Soviet Union re-born.
I'm not clear how strip searching them would have revealed their involvement in those bombings. I'm sure they didn't have a bomb up their asses...nor a jet airplane.
So, they make you buy health insurance..They then make it illegal to not have health insurance and if you do not buy their health insurance ..They have you arrested and strip searched....THIS IS NOT NAZI GERMANY!!!! WAKE UP AMERICA!!!! UNITE!!!!!! Stand up against these unconstitutional laws being passed....The first to try and deny these words on this forum will be the Nazi propaganda mole embedded in our media.
Actually there appears to be no penalty for not paying the penalty for not buying insurance. Members of SCOTUS commented on Congress passing a "toothless" law.
I hope the court is the first recipients of this law.
this is a bad decision whichever party you belong to, there are documented cases in chicago and philly and LA of cops looking for woman driving cars with minor violations such as broken lense on a tail light etc and arresting them and taking them down to the station and strip seaching them to get their jollies, if you don't believe it research it, this is massive abuse waiting to happen again and again, only when it happens to a politician or judge or high ranking officail will anything be done about it, good luck moms and sisters and wifes and girlfriends, better wear your nice panties for the rogue officers
So? find and prosecute the abusers.
"So?" That's your response, Neal? What a piece of crap you are!
If you check my prior posts, you will see I'm pretty much OK with govt...more or less. But, how much money do you wanna lay down that if one of those Supreme @!$%#s was arrested for something minor, that once they found out "who" HE/SHE was, there would be NO, I repeat NO strip search! However, I can see doing this for certain violent situations, but a records error? There will never be equality as long as there is a "them' and "us," Pink Floyd (-: