Legal News

Strip Search for Ibuprofen Ruled Unconstitutional, More

By Ashby Jones

There’s a lot to mention in the Wide World of Law today, so we’re going to give you a good old-fashioned quick-hitting roundup, starting with some news from the Supreme Court:

Strip Search Violates 4th Amendment, Court Finds: The Supreme Court rapped school officials for strip-searching a 13-year-old girl, Savana Redding (pictured), 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.”

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. Click here for the WSJ story; here for the opinion; here for a LB post from April on the case.

In some Supreme Court non-news, the Ricci case, involving the complaint of the white firefighters in New Haven, did not come down today. It is slated to be handed down on Monday. We’ll also know Monday whether the Court will take up the appeal of Joe Nacchio, the former Qwest CEO convicted on insider-trading charges in 2007.

Jena Cases to Wrap Up: Five of six black teens accused of beating a white high school classmate in a case that led to the biggest civil rights protest in decades will plead guilty in a deal expected to be finalized this week, Louisiana court officials involved with the case told The Associated Press on Wednesday.

The six students were initially charged with attempted murder in the 2006 attack on Justin Barker and became known as the “Jena Six,” after the town where the beating took place. Click here for the AP story.

Lehman to Look into Barclay’s Sale: Lehman Brothers Holdings received the blessing of a bankruptcy to investigate whether the hasty sale of its broker-dealer business to Barclays deprived it of billions of dollars. Lehman said liabilities assumed by Barclays in the sale, including $2 billion in employee bonuses and other compensation, haven’t been fully paid or were miscalculated at the time of the deal. In either case, Lehman contends the sale resulted in a “windfall” for Barclays reaching billions of dollars. Click here for the WSJ story.

New Trial Ordered for Accused Killers of Russian Journalist: Russia’s Supreme Court today overturned the acquittal of three men charged as accessories in the assassination of crusading investigative journalist Anna Politkovskaya. Click here for the LA Times article.

Photo: AP

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on June 25, 2009 (boomark / email).