Thursday, June 25, 2009
News The Supreme Court Rules
Posted by Dominic Holden on Thu, Jun 25, 2009 at 10:50 AM
There is a God:
The Supreme Court ruled Thursday that a school's strip search of an Arizona teenage girl accused of having prescription-strength ibuprofen was illegal.In an 8-1 ruling, the justices said school officials violated the law with their search of Savana Redding in the rural eastern Arizona town of Safford.
Redding, who now attends college, was 13 when officials at Safford Middle School ordered her to remove her clothes and shake out her underwear because they were looking for pills — the equivalent of two Advils. The district bans prescription and over-the-counter drugs and the school was acting on a tip from another student.
There is also a devil: Clarence Thomas cast the lone dissenting vote in favor of strip searching children based on tips from other children (he was also the only judge who voted to strike down the Voting Rights Act earlier this week). He warned the court that, in issuing a ruling banning the search of a girl's underwear, it "announces the safest place to secrete contraband in school." In April, when the court heard arguments from attorneys in the case, it appeared they could rule the other way. (You can view the entire ruling in this .pdf file.)
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6
Maybe Justice Long Dong wouldn't be the lone voice in opinions if he actually interacted with the others during oral argument. Regardless of his judicial philosophy (which is obvoiusly not mainstream), he is a waste of a seat in SCOTUS, as he doesn't add anything to the collective decision process. What good is his "background" if he never says anything or asks any probing questions. I don't like the decisions Scalia comes up with, but at least he engages the court in discussion and adds to the process.
8
Justice Thomas then retired to his chambers, where he tried, unsuccessfully once again, to jerk off to his favorite searching-schoolgirl's-panties scenario, and had to resort, once again, to the only that that gets him off anymore -- electrocuting a kitten with a lamp cord.
10
@6, Thomas's entire self-loathing career on the bench has been an exercise in proving, to himself and others, that affirmative action, which he benefited greatly from but opposes, is bad. "Look, affirmative action promotes the unworthy! Look at me!".
11
I wonder what would his parents think about him voting to strike down the Voting Rights Act. I swear, that dude has to hate himself.
13
Hmm...the .pdf link doesn't work, but not sure I wanna plow through the whole thing to verify that a SC justice actually wrote "secrete" instead of "secret". Since he's a prick, I'll assume that he did and move on.
15
I'm only shocked that this had to go all the way to the Supreme Court.
If she was stashing a kilo of heroin up her cooter, the cops can still strip search her (with sufficient probable cause). There is no justification for school employees to strip search kids for any reason. Period.
If she was stashing a kilo of heroin up her cooter, the cops can still strip search her (with sufficient probable cause). There is no justification for school employees to strip search kids for any reason. Period.
19
@15 This. I have no idea why the school thought this would be OK without having the parents or at LEAST school lawyers present. That just seems like basic CYA. I was kind of shocked it went all the way to the Supreme Court, but at least they made the right decision.
20
So, the ruling "announces the safest place to secrete contraband in school". Right, okay then. But, if it had gone the other way it would have announced the easiest way for a student to get revenge on another student. "Uh, Mr. Principal? I heard that Student-I-Hate brought some pot to school and is keeping it in her underwear."
21
A good decision, but they only got it half right. They also ruled that she's not entitled to damages. Now that's just wrong.
23
"oh my god"
"what?"
"it's as if I heard a million pedophile police scream out in agony all at once ..."
"what?"
"it's as if I heard a million pedophile police scream out in agony all at once ..."
26
@11 Loveschild, I wonder what your parents as well would think of your stance against equality for all humans.
Or are they just ignorant bigots like yourself as well?
Or are they just ignorant bigots like yourself as well?
27
If a school official tried to strip-search my child, they would get a visit from my good friend mr. baseball bat.
28
@6, Thomas has been pretty consistent with his belief that oral arguments are a waste of time, and I kind of agree with him, I mean, personally I would find it disconcerting if major constitutional issues were primarily decided by the persuasiveness of consuls oral abilities (that sounds really dirty, but it isn't), rather than interpretation of relevant case law and the Constitution. It makes for great theater, but shouldn't really hold much weight when the justices make their decision, IMO.
29
I have a theory regarding Clarence Thomas: he's actually an extra-terrestrial alien masquerading as a human. Remeber, Men In Black the movie where they have the video screens of all these aliens masquerading as people like Michael Jackson, Sylverster Stallone, et al being monitored? Same thing.
He is to the FAR RIGHT of Roberts, Alito and sometimes even Scalia.
He is to the FAR RIGHT of Roberts, Alito and sometimes even Scalia.
30
Who doesn't keep their advil in their pants?
What I found interesting were the initial thoughts thrown out by some of the male justices about how girls have to undress for gym class and so on and how it might not actually be that big of a deal. It was Ginsburg who had to explain what it is like to be a 13 year old girl going through puberty (when most girls are already pretty uncomfortable with their own existence and then you add a changing body to the situation, it is kind of a constant state of hell) and THEN being forced to strip down to your underwear in front of someone. (which would be pretty humiliating and down-right scary) She sort of hinted at the fact that having another female on the bench might help understand basic things like that.
What I found interesting were the initial thoughts thrown out by some of the male justices about how girls have to undress for gym class and so on and how it might not actually be that big of a deal. It was Ginsburg who had to explain what it is like to be a 13 year old girl going through puberty (when most girls are already pretty uncomfortable with their own existence and then you add a changing body to the situation, it is kind of a constant state of hell) and THEN being forced to strip down to your underwear in front of someone. (which would be pretty humiliating and down-right scary) She sort of hinted at the fact that having another female on the bench might help understand basic things like that.
31
@13, "secrete" is the correct word. It's a verb meaning "to conceal in a hiding place" (in addition to its other meaning "to produce, as a bodily fluid"). "Secret" makes no sense in its place in that sentence. Thomas is scum, and morally vacant, but his grammar is up to standard.
32
should have said "announces the safest place to secrete pedophiles in school"
Look! No consequences if you get called on it either.
Look! No consequences if you get called on it either.
33
Ha... another judicial 'joke' from Clancy. Or to quote Tracy Jordan: "WORDPLAY!"
I really don't like that guy (Thomas, not Tracy). He gives us self-respecting leches a bad name.
I really don't like that guy (Thomas, not Tracy). He gives us self-respecting leches a bad name.
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