School's Strip Search Deemed Unconstitutional
In May 2009 this blog reported on oral arguments made before the United States Supreme Court in Redding v. Safford United School District. To view the original blogpost, setting for the core facts underlying the dispute, click here.
On June 25, 2009, the Supreme Court issued its opinion, finding that the school’s strip search of 13 year-old Savanna Redding violated the Fourth Amendment because “there were no reasons to suspect the drugs presented a danger or were concealed in her underwear.” In the absence of such immediate danger or evidence that the student was concealing drugs in her underwear, school officials could not make “the quantum leap from outer clothes and backpacks to exposure of intimate parts.”
The Court attempted to soften the blow to school administrators by acknowledging that the administrators’ motives in this case appeared pure, but nonetheless “the Fourth Amendment places limits on the official, even with the high degree of deference that courts must pay to the educator’s professional judgment.”
To view the complete Supreme Court opinion, click here.
