Strip-search ruling is baffling

Opinion: April 10, 2012 at 12:00a.m.

Philadelphia Inquirer: In a shocking abdication of its responsibility to uphold Americans’ constitutional freedoms, the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that people suspected of minor offenses, such as rolling through a stop light, can be stripped and have their body cavities searched by jail guards.

Writing for the slim 5-4 majority, Justice Anthony M. Kennedy said the court should not second-guess prison officials. But that is exactly why there is a court — to second-guess officials when they ignore constitutional rights and freedoms.

In this case, the court threw away the individual’s basic right not to be punished before being adjudicated.

The court’s opinion is rooted in utter paranoia, the worst of all influences on public policy. Kennedy said that “people detained for minor offenses can turn out to be the most devious and dangerous criminals.”

In his dissenting opinion, Justice Stephen G. Breyer correctly pointed out that the Fourth Amendment right against illegal search and seizure includes strip searches of people arrested for minor offenses not involving drugs or violence, unless jailers suspect them of carrying contraband. Breyer also noted that drugs or weapons were found in only one of 64,000 strip searches of nonviolent offenders.

That should have, but didn’t, move Kennedy, who chillingly wrote that “every detainee who will be admitted to the general population may be required to undergo a close visual inspection, while undressed.”

The court offered no guidance on this complex issue, but the obvious solution is to keep all those suspected of minor offenses separate from the general population, and hope jailers use common sense and decency in dealing with errant bicyclists, dog walkers and drivers.