Supreme Court signs off on strip searches for all arrestees

Going forward from this week on, people arrested in the United States may face a mandatory strip search, even if their offense is minor and authorities don’t suspect them of smuggling any contraband.

That’s because U.S. Supreme Court Justice Anthony M. Kennedy sided with the court’s conservatives on Monday, swinging the vote 5-4 in favor of allowing jail officials to conduct a strip search of anyone in their custody.

Those searches may now even be carried out on people who’ve only committed minor offenses like traffic violations or small drug possession, and in cases where there is nothing that meets the previous standard of “reasonable suspicion” that someone may be hiding something.

The screws are tightening on our rights or what's left of them. It seems there is an efficient way to make us all more secure at the expense of freedom. It's hard to imagine we will ever start heading in the right direction again.


Officer: "Sir, were you speeding?"
Suspect: "No, I don't think so."
Officer: "Sir, you seem guilty, I'm going to need to go ahead and strip search you."
Suspect: "Er, what?"

www.rawstory.com...

I am sorry but US Law is criminal.

4% of world population with 25% of worlds prison population. It's not the People, it's the Laws.

Don't worry.

I honestly don't believe it will be in effect for too long. It is all for a reason.

Remember all those banker resignations? Yea, IMHO it is for that.

Our freedom is already here. They're done for.

I'd just direct everyone's attention to this rather dubious set of world record holders as to WHY Jail authorities of all people *MUST* have the right to strip search incoming inmates.

Some VERY impressive body cavity smuggling accomlishments.

I suppose there is another way of doing it if privacy is THAT critical. I doubt someone would consider Solitary for days or weeks a fair trade for the privacy though.

Im a little confused, so does this mean let's say I get arrested for somthing minor, for example.. when the bulls won the championship I was threatened by police they were going to arrest me for disorderly conduct, I was 20 and I was having a blast and running around kinda like the OWS'ers but happy lol, they didn't because I listened and went home, but if that were to happen now, and they arrest me does this mean they can strip search me?

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.

MSNBC

How nice, an innocent man spends a week in jail and is subjected to that.

This is the problem with what out government has been morphed into. We are guaranteed freedom from illegal searches and siezires of our property under the 4th amendment. Prior supreme court rulings have found that it requires more than just a simple hunch and must have probable cause that is supported with "factual evidence" in order to perform a search of a person. The USSC has also previously ruled that a suspect can only be searched for reasons that are related to the cause that he or she was stopped or detained for. For example, if I were stopped for suspected DUI the officer could search for alcohol related evidence but not a gun or any other "suspect item".

We are now seeing a state in which court rulings are deviating from case law and are in fact making up the rulings as they go, with no precedent or law needed to support their ruling. We have turned away from the times when the court was the citizens last defence against tyranny and are now living in a nation that uses the courts as a means to suppress the rights of the individual. The courts are now nothing more than a tool for tyranny and this ruling is more evidence of that.

As Jefferson said "Rightful liberty is unobstructed action according to our will drawn around the rights of others, I do not add 'within the limits of the law's because law is often the tyrant's will and always is when it violates the rights of the individual."

Our founding fathers said that all men are created with unalienable rights and that governments were instituded to secure those rights. Our government is hell bent on destroying every ounce of liberty we have and sadly it appears that we are going to sit by quietly and allow them to do just that.

Ah wheres Vitch to come and explain this ...is it further strict interpretation of a law that already allows jailors the right to strip search people in their custody.....
Seems to me that jails have always had the right to bend you over .....snap!

The SCOTUS continues its assault on American civil liberties. Now anyone, anywhere can be strip searched upon their arrest. Not conviction, but arrest. 13 million people a year are arrested and put in jail. This is a huge affront to our civil liberties.

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.

(Regarding strip searches) The procedures endorsed by the majority are forbidden by statute in at least 10 states and are at odds with the policies of federal authorities. According to a supporting brief filed by the American Bar Association, international human rights treaties also ban the procedures.

According to opinions in the lower courts, people may be strip-searched after arrests for violating a leash law, driving without a license and failing to pay child support. Citing examples from briefs submitted to the Supreme Court, Justice Breyer wrote that people have been subjected to “the humiliation of a visual strip-search” after being arrested for driving with a noisy muffler, failing to use a turn signal and riding a bicycle without an audible bell.

A nun was strip-searched, he wrote, after an arrest for trespassing during an antiwar demonstration. So were victims of sexual assaults and women who were menstruating.

We can thank our "conservative" justices for this "victory". I particularly love Justice Kennedy's rationale for his support of this ruling;

“people detained for minor offenses can turn out to be the most devious and dangerous criminals.”

Yeah so can people nominated to the SCOTUS. In fact I would suggest they've turned out to be the most devious and dangerous criminals against the American people.

(source for excerpts: Supreme Court Ruling Allows Strip-Searches for Any Offense)

You have to have been arrested.
Not just stopped on the side of the
road. I guess if you did not pay traffick
tickets and were arrested for that
then they could search you
for technically traffic tickets
but your going into the same jail
as everyone else for any and all
crimes. I thought all jails already
did strip searches.. It is usually done
when people being booked in
are made to change clothes into the jump suits while
officers observe.

Great, before everyone was complaining that laws are illegal blah blah blah and that the courts should decide what's right and what's wrong...

Now people are complaining that those same courts, who they have so much faith in, are in on the game... What a bunch of crock...

make up your minds...

Originally posted by CALGARIAN
I am sorry but US Law is criminal.

4% of world population with 25% of worlds prison population. It's not the People, it's the Laws.

It is not the laws, it is the legislation and/or the gross misapplication of legislation. Legislation is not law, at best it is merely evidence of law, at worst it is unlawful.

Originally posted by v1rtu0s0

Going forward from this week on, people arrested in the United States may face a mandatory strip search, even if their offense is minor and authorities don’t suspect them of smuggling any contraband.

That’s because U.S. Supreme Court Justice Anthony M. Kennedy sided with the court’s conservatives on Monday, swinging the vote 5-4 in favor of allowing jail officials to conduct a strip search of anyone in their custody.

Those searches may now even be carried out on people who’ve only committed minor offenses like traffic violations or small drug possession, and in cases where there is nothing that meets the previous standard of “reasonable suspicion” that someone may be hiding something.

The screws are tightening on our rights or what's left of them. It seems there is an efficient way to make us all more secure at the expense of freedom. It's hard to imagine we will ever start heading in the right direction again.


Officer: "Sir, were you speeding?"
Suspect: "No, I don't think so."
Officer: "Sir, you seem guilty, I'm going to need to go ahead and strip search you."
Suspect: "Er, what?"

www.rawstory.com...

edit on 2-4-2012 by v1rtu0s0 because: (no reason given)

Welcome to the conservative dream world. The world where corporations have the money to spend on electoral campaigns and out voice the people. Where women are put back in the kitchens and bedrooms where they are supposed to be. Where if you are arrested you can be stripped and searched. Where you can gun down unarmed teenagers because they look "suspicious" for wearing a hood up in the rain. Where it is ok to gun someone down for stealing a car radio. Where the sick are left to die, and the government can take your land to build a pipeline. Next on the slate is gonna be arrests for those not going to church.

Ever see Robocop? Ever think to yourself how ridiculous that future looked? Well guess what, it is coming. Look at the world around you privatized prisons, privatized hospitals, privatized highways, privatized armies, a handful of companies owning all the media.

If there ever was a time for the people to get their backs up and just say no.....
just say no to any more foreclosures, no to all the xrays and gropings at airports....
where would the TSA agents run if everyone turned on them and stripsearched them for a change....?
Can you imagine...
Passengers detain TSA........strip search reveals they are human......
With enough unity in this society, we could roll these basturds over....................

If somebody tries to strip search me for a speeding ticket, that will become the time where it is officially, "I'm going to make you angry enough to kill me." And then I will not stop until they do so.

Originally posted by Blackmarketeer
We can thank our "conservative" justices for this "victory". I particularly love Justice Kennedy's rationale for his support of this ruling;

“people detained for minor offenses can turn out to be the most devious and dangerous criminals.”

Yeah so can people nominated to the SCOTUS. In fact I would suggest they've turned out to be the most devious and dangerous criminals against the American people.

(source for excerpts: Supreme Court Ruling Allows Strip-Searches for Any Offense)

I couldn't agree more.
It is becoming ever more important to blend into the background of society, less we want to be violated.

reply to post by v1rtu0s0


Actually, I think its been that way for a long, long time. I think a search is SOP after all arrests other than if the person makes Bail before processing. I guess this is about those folks as they could get away with hiding things by making Bail up front.

reply to post by pirhanna


Staying out of jail is easy? They are not talking about searching people before an arrest and most arrested are and have always been guilty.

Why would anyone who is not a criminal have a problem with this?

Originally posted by Blaine91555
reply to post by v1rtu0s0

 

Actually, I think its been that way for a long, long time. I think a search is SOP after all arrests other than if the person makes Bail before processing. I guess this is about those folks as they could get away with hiding things by making Bail up front.

You are correct. It has been this way for some time. I think it has just taken this long for the challenge to make it to a High Court.

reply to post by Blaine91555


Why would you have a problem with being implanted with a chip that tracks your every movement? Nobody will take advantage of it. Why would you have a problem with an officer coming into your house and routinely going through your things? Unless, of course, you're a criminal.

Be careful with that kind of logic, lest it turn around and bite us all.