Bend Over and Kiss the 4th Amendment Goodbye

My reaction after the  Supreme Court's Citizens United decision                                                          B Upton

It was bad enough hearing the right wing justices use Tea Party talking points in criticizing the health care law. Justice Scalia basically said that if the government makes you buy insurance, it may be able to force you to eat broccoli! Horrors!

But their latest ruling is just so awful it makes you wonder what is next and what can be done about it.

On April 2, in the usual 5-4 partisan split, the justices made the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution null and void. Police can now strip search anyone- no matter how minor the offense, or even if they have detained you wrongly.

Justice Breyer in dissent cited a study that said less invasive forms of searches were as successful in finding contraband. He noted that degrading strip searches have been used on people for not using a turn signal and for not having a bell on a bicycle! He also cited the case of a 70 year old nun, who was subjected to the humiliation of a strip search after being arrested during a peace demonstration. He said unwarranted strip searches were a “serious affront to human dignity and to individual privacy."

In this ruling the Supreme Court Five (pictured above) are saying you can be strip searched for any minor offense and there needs to be no reasonable justification for the police to do so.. This is exactly what one expects of a police state- some would argue we are already there.

These are the same justices who seemed to be making a case about how the Affordable Healthcare Act infringes on our personal liberty- but subjecting citizens to strip searches without probable cause does not?

 

Like the the Other 98% said the "Supreme Court just wants a government small enough to invade our bodies."

The Fourth Amendment of the Constitution of the United States
"The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated…”