Supreme Court: Strip search of child illegal
Published: June 25, 2009
Updated 5 months ago
By an eight-to-one verdict, the Supreme Court ruled Thursday morning that “a school’s strip search of an Arizona teenage girl accused of having prescription-strength ibuprofen was illegal,” the Associated Press reports.
The justices said officials at the Arizona middle school acted unreasonably when they ordered Savana Redding to partially disrobe and then shake out her bra and underwear in front of two female staff members. Another student had reported that Savana was distributing prescription-strength ibuprofen.
The ruling puts new limits on the broad latitude the high court had previously afforded public school administrators to search students and their belongings for evidence of drugs and other contraband. The court tempered the impact of its ruling by saying that Redding can’t seek damages from the assistant principal who ordered the strip search because the right wasn’t “clearly established” at the time.
MSNBC notes that the only justice who ruled the strip search of the child constitutional was Clarence Thomas.
On Monday, Thomas also broke with his fellow justices on “an astounding 8-1 decision gave a controversial part of the 1965 Voting Rights Act (Section 5) a reprieve.” Thomas, the court’s only black member, alone voted to overturn the Voting Rights Act.
This video is from MSNBC’s News Live, broadcast June 25, 2009.
Download video via RawReplay.com
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Of course the sexual harrasser would believe it’s constitutional to strip search a young woman - no surprise there.
thomas is a pathetic human being and should be impeached for numerous violations of the law and humanity he has committed, while a sitting on the Supreme Court.
LMFAO.. figures.. Thomas…
so much for due process.. And this guy is supposedly competent to judge cases? Where is the due process by individuals given legal authority to do this? wow..
Perverts come in all colors and Thomas is one very sick puppy. He lost his mine when he allowed George H.W. Bush to use him as a boy. Justice Thomas who’s family died for him to have freedom became a sell out to his race and to God. Now he sees dead people who never let him forget he’s a turn coat. Thomas would have no problem fighting for Pro Life so males can then rape the children. Now the picture of his face when President Obama was sworn in office was priceless. It took the Civil Rights Bill so long to pass because of the KKK and blacks like Justice Thomas who were sell outs. Don’t worry hell is waiting and he will see many friends there. God does have a since of humor as he let a black racist name Clarence Thomas see our first Black President take office and he didn’t bow and sell out his race to reach the landmark. Yes Obama showed Justice Thomas was Dr. King has preached for years as Obama is for all people and gets a good nights sleep too.
“God does have a since of humor”…….. Really?
except, there is no god.
So Thomas is a pervert who probably gets aroused thinking about strip-searching a teen. The country knew he was a lecher during his nomination and confirmation process, and the Rethuglicans helped grease the way for his confirmation, knowing all of this. Of course, most of them are a bunch of hypocritical perverts themselves. Birds of a feather and all.
I find it impossible to criticize Clarence Thomas. Any friend of Long John Silver is a friend of mine.
I made an error. I find it impossible to criticize Clarence Thomas. Any friend of Long Dong Silver is a friend of mine.
God gawd, that Clarence Thomas sure does hate him some black people!
The Jews call it “self loathing”. I call it “token appointment”.
Frankly, I’m amazed. This has to be the first time I can remember that Thomas voted differently from Scalia, and now twice in a row! Of course, he voted according to his own despicable character, and apparently Thomas remains steadfast in his refusal to let decency (let alone the Constitution) get in his way, even to the point where he is willing to defy his puppeteer.
And they worry about Sotomayor when Thomas is up there disregarding the Constitution and ruling with his sick desires..
Could still be under Scalia’s orders if they knew it was only a solid 2 votes (losing anyway), with the statement made but Thomas taking the heat.
Or not.
Just mentioning a possibility.
This could be an indicator of the pedaphiliaic nature of the rotten justice. Thomas should be investigated or at least interviewed as to why he would allow a child to be striped search. This could be grounds for impeachment. Thomas needs to answer up. does he secretly have child porno on his office computer??? Who would dare look on a justice’s computer????
GOP= Greedy old Perverts= Gods own Party. At least the school officials here know better than to strip search one of mine. They wouldn’t dare!
Congress should have listened to Anita Hill … all that porn Uncle Tom Clarence shoved in her face.
It’s just too bad she didn’t say what kind of porn - it was obviously kiddie porn.
This calls for DRUG TESTING just like the do to construction workers.
Hmmm….what is it the right wingers always shriek about? Oh yeah, Activists Judges.
Clarence Thomas is a very incompetent judge and not qualified to be on the Supreme Court. Of course , George H.W. Bush knew this all along and that is why Bush chose him to replace Thurgood Marshall. How many Bush appointees do we have to go thru to realize the Bush family has had very destructive agenda toward this courntry? Disgusting.
What a pervert!
This should have never gone to trial. Ms. Reddings father should have capped the vice principal in the knee. If he had ordered my daughter stripped searched, he would be walking with a permanent limp. A thirteen year old honor student stripped searched over an advil. What a piece of shit. Zero Tolerance is UN American.
word up! Are we supposed to home school our kids to prevent their sexual abuse by their assistant principles?
This shows us how out of touch Clarance really is. He couldn’t even vote with the NAZI’s that Boosh appointed.
You can resign now Clarence!!!!!
“Clarence Thomas, alone, rules child strip search legal” is the ridiculously inaccurate headline on the main rawstory.com page.
Makes it sound like the other 8 Justices recused themselves and Thomas alone issued a ruling. I’m not defending Thomas, I’m decrying the deterioration I’ve noticed from Raw over the last couple weeks. Come on, people, this site has been a good source of information. I’m not sure if you’re intentionally going for increased sensationalism or if one of your editors is just clueless, but please make it stop.
I agree with you. I had the same reaction to the headline; “huh, how can one Justice rule on anything?” It does seem like Thomas defined the law all by his lonesome. I also agree that there is some real sloppiness with RW, although their content is fine. There are some technical issues too. For example, when I tried to respond to your post, the login that popped up did not function. I had to go to the main login and then to the post.
I like RW but sure do wish they’d clean their act up some.
I don’t see it that way. Anyone who took senior American history in high school and got a c- or better would have known that the headline indicated an 8-1 ruling with Thomas being the “1.” I would have worded it differently, but to suggest that the headline was totally misleading is to suggest that Raw Story’s readership would not be able to instantly figure out what was meant, is a stretch (I hope!). I give them more credit that that, and the bulk of the comments here reinforce that impression.
I agree. I did not find the headline misleading at all.
All Thomas wanted to see was a video of the strip search of the little girl. Disgusting Uncle Tom with not a lick of sense. Just like the idiot that appointed him.
Just call him “Pubic hair” Coke Can. He and the other idiots appointed by the Bush crime family are a disgrace to the Supreme Court and the United States of America. My dog is smarter than any of these fascists.
Whats remarkable is that no parent went down to the school and did some serious ass kicking…I cant image what I would do to some freak stripping my kid.
The token rapist judge is really an idiot. However as a whole this is the only sensible decision that has come from SCOTUS in a while.
I guess all the pedophiles in the country can rest a little easier now knowing they have someone representing their interests sitting on the SCOTUS bench. I mean really, what else is one to think of Thomas considering this and his past behavior.
That this incident arises from a child being strip searched simply for having prescription IBUPROFIN is in itself frighteningly insane. It’s like our govt has turned into an insane asylum where the patients are in control!
How could any parent trust the public education system when they will do this to a child? Fortunately, thanks to this ruling, at least they’ll no longer be able to “strip search” them.
Thomas is a lying mentally damaged pervert. He should never have been put on the highest court in the land … Our countries justice system will be compromised until he is gone from the court once and for all.
Clarence Thomas aside, the remarkable thing is that the rest of the rightwing decided that sexual abuse is wrong. That is what amazed me. Given the obeisance to authority that Scalia, Roberts, and Alito have shown all through their careers, the best I was hoping for was another 5 - 4 decision.
And also he voted against all the other justices in the Voter Act, yep Uncle Thomas is working hard to believe the pull yourself up by your bootstraps thinking.
Not only does this dork, Thomas, think it’s OK to strip search tweens, he wants to be the one to do it.
I do disagree with the court that the school officials shouldn’t have to pay a monetary settlement. They should be made to do so, and it should come their own pockets, not the taxpayers. If that were the case I can guarantee it will never happen anywhere again.
It should be that way whenever any public official–like cops–violate a person’s civil rights. Making the taxpayers foot the bill for the official’s wrongful acts is ridiculous.
Clarence is no uncle tom.. He is a full blown uncle ruckus. We should find out what his favorite candy is, and make damned sure he has a ready supply at all times. Hopefully diabetes will kick in and “shorten” his tenure.
I have to admit that I’m surprised Thomas didn’t weave Kelo vs. City of New London into his ruling. The ability to raise taxes as an eminent domain issue in kiddie porn would have folded right into his philosophy, obviously. Where’s impeachment when you really need it? Oh, that’s right, I forgot. He’s a Republican. “Off the table” for THEM, right? Can’t wait for them to try to impeach Obama for killing that fly–”thou shalt not kill” being obviously operative now. Obviously we won’t get our country back until Will Rogers rises from the dead.