Monday, April 2, 2012

US Supreme Court: Strip-Searches for Any Offense

Wonder how this can be interpreted when there is reasonable suspicion of suicide vests, grenades on dead enemy (citizen, terrorist insurgent or whatever).  David Blacker can you weigh in.

Excerpts:
officials may strip-search people arrested for any offense, however minor, before admitting them to jails even if the officials have no reason to suspect the presence of contraband. 
According to a supporting brief filed by the American Bar Association, international human rights treaties also ban the procedures.
A nun was strip-searched, he wrote, after an arrest for trespassing during an antiwar demonstration. So were victims of sexual assaults and women who were menstruating.
Justice Kennedy responded that “people detained for minor offenses can turn out to be the most devious and dangerous criminals.” He noted that Timothy McVeigh, later put to death for his role in the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, was first arrested for driving without a license plate. “One of the terrorists involved in the Sept. 11 attacks was stopped and ticketed for speeding just two days before hijacking Flight 93,” Justice Kennedy added.

via NY Times:  http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/03/us/justices-approve-strip-searches-for-any-offense.html?

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