Ethics

Partial Victory for Sanity in School Strip Search Case

By Ed Brayton

The Supreme Court ruled 8-1 that a school that performed a strip search of an 8th grade girl in search of Advil violated her privacy rights (and yes, I knew without even looking at it that Clarence Thomas would be the one in dissent; he has said many times that he views schools as little more than prisons for students where the warden's authority may not be questioned by the courts).

So why is it only a partial victory? Because while the majority found that the search was unreasonable when looking for Advil, it would be just fine if they were looking for illegal drugs. And if they had just stopped with searching her backpack without probable cause, that would be okay too.

Full post as published by Dispatches from the Culture Wars on June 26, 2009 (boomark / email).