Supreme Court Rules Strip Search of 13-Year-Old Girl Unconstitutional
Vote is 8-1; Justice Thomas dissents, asks for first dibs on video
By JESS BRAVIN
WSJ
WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court rapped school officials for strip-searching a 13-year-old girl in a fruitless hunt for ibuprofen, ruling that an investigation based on almost no evidence violated the Fourth Amendment ban on "unreasonable searches and seizures."
Savana Redding, right, and her lawyer Adam Wolf, stood outside the Supreme Court in April after the court heard her case.
The court's 8-1 vote was a surprising victory for student rights, after its 2007 ruling that a school campaign to discourage drug abuse outweighed a teenager's First Amendment right to mock such efforts.
The opinion, by Justice David Souter, who is retiring at the end of this term, exempted the assistant principal who ordered the search from liability, finding that it might not have been clear to him that his action was unconstitutional. But the justices left open the possibility that the school district, in Safford, Ariz., could be liable for the violation.
Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Antonin Scalia, Anthony Kennedy and Samuel Alito, who all endorsed the 2007 decision limiting student free speech rights when it came to drug use, joined Justice Souter's opinion, as did Justice Stephen Breyer.
(More here.)
By JESS BRAVIN
WSJ
WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court rapped school officials for strip-searching a 13-year-old girl in a fruitless hunt for ibuprofen, ruling that an investigation based on almost no evidence violated the Fourth Amendment ban on "unreasonable searches and seizures."
Savana Redding, right, and her lawyer Adam Wolf, stood outside the Supreme Court in April after the court heard her case.
The court's 8-1 vote was a surprising victory for student rights, after its 2007 ruling that a school campaign to discourage drug abuse outweighed a teenager's First Amendment right to mock such efforts.
The opinion, by Justice David Souter, who is retiring at the end of this term, exempted the assistant principal who ordered the search from liability, finding that it might not have been clear to him that his action was unconstitutional. But the justices left open the possibility that the school district, in Safford, Ariz., could be liable for the violation.
Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Antonin Scalia, Anthony Kennedy and Samuel Alito, who all endorsed the 2007 decision limiting student free speech rights when it came to drug use, joined Justice Souter's opinion, as did Justice Stephen Breyer.
(More here.)
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