Community Corner

Burlington County Man Loses at Supreme Court

Strip searching jailed people, even for minor, noncriminal offenses, is OK, the Supreme Court says.

A Burlington County jail wasn’t out of line when officers strip-searched a man held on suspicion of a minor offense, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled Monday. 

Albert Florence sued Burlington County after he was subjected to two strip searches in 2005. A New Jersey State Police trooper arrested Florence after stopping a car the Bordentown man was a passenger in. Florence was held for not paying a fine he had actually paid in full earlier, reports The Huffington Post.

Over six days and in two county jails, Florence was forced to submit to the searches even though, he argued, there was no reason to suspect he had contraband or had even committed a criminal offense.

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The Supreme Court split along ideological lines, 5-4, in the case, with the more conservative justices ruling in favor of the county.

"In addressing this type of constitutional claim, courts must defer to the judgment of correctional officials unless the record contains substantial evidence showing their policies are an unnecessary or unjustified response to problems of jail security," Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote for the majority. "That necessary showing has not been made in this case."

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In his dissent, Justice Stephen Breyer wrote that the degree of searches, which include exposing a female’s vagina and a man’s testicles, exceed necessity when a person is held on minor offenses.

"In my view, such a search of an individual arrested for a minor offense that does not involve drugs or violence—say a traffic offense, a regulatory offense, an essentially civil matter, or any other such misdemeanor—is an 'unreasonable search' forbidden by the Fourth Amendment, unless prison authorities have reasonable suspicion to believe that the individual possesses drugs or other contraband," Breyer wrote.

Read more about the decision in Florence v. Board of Chosen Freeholders at The Huffington Post.


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