weapons, drugs, or other contraband.” A federal judge agreed. On appeal, the Third Circuit Court of Appeals reversed, two to one, holding that the “jails’ interest in safety and security outweighed the privacy interests of detainees – even those accused of minor crimes.”

 

Judge Thomas Bull dissented at the Court of Appeals:

 

The majority sweeps away twenty-five years of jurisprudence, giving jailors the unfet-tered right to conduct mandatory, routine, suspicionless body cavity searches on any citizen who may be arrested for minor offenses, such as violating a leash law or a traffic code, and who pose no credible risk for smuggling contraband into the jail.

 

The case was subsequently appealed to the United States Supreme Court. The Court granted...

Please subscribe to keep reading.