Keep Your Pants On (even at school)

In a decision that should please civil libertarians and awkward adolescents alike, the U.S. Supreme Court determined that, in light of the circumstances, a strip search of a junior high student by school officials was unreasonable. Justice Souter wrote for the 8-1 majority in Safford Unified School District #1, Et Al., Petitioners v. April Redding. Referring to the strip search, Souter notes that "Its indignity does not outlaw the search, but it does implicate the rule that the search [be]‘reasonably related in scope to the circumstances which justified the interference in the first place.'" According to the Court, the circumstances failed to justify such extensive intrusion.

On the issue of liability for the school officials who ordered and performed the search, the Court determined that due to the unsettled nature of the law at the time of the search, the officials are entitled to qualified immunity.