The Supreme Court ruled 5-4 today that anyone arrested in the U.S. may be strip-searched. [NYT]

  • satn

    AKA; How george bush will fuck you over for years or decades after leaving office.

    • chellberty

      Obama could have assigned an independent prosecutor but he didn’t. So now everything that has not been tried in the court of law has been made bipartisan thus he is complicit under national and international Law for not prosecuting the Bush administration.  

      • Antinous / Moderator

        Yeah, pretty much.

        Maybe we should all get tattoos down there that say, “I got your doughnut right here, officer.”

        • Ronamo

          The police (which the same SCOTUS ruled are not responsible for protecting citizens) are sort of like Happy Fun Ball.
          Consider the indicators for discontinuing use of Happy Fun Ball:
          Discontinue use of Happy Fun Ball if any of the following occurs: itching, vertigo, dizziness, tingling in extremities, loss of balance or coordination, slurred speech, temporary blindness, profuse sweating ,heart palpitations
          Any of that sound like a good post-pepper-spray-incident checklist?  Exactly.  Do not taunt Happy Fun Ball, or the police.

    • Cowicide

      Right, it hasn’t gone unnoticed that it was conservative judges that voted for this anti-American, invasive travesty.

      When conservatives whine that they hate “big government”… things like this make me want to smack them across the face to wake them up to REALITY.

  • Pedantic Douchebag

    I can’t wait to get my new copy of the Constitution with the 1st, 4th, 5th, 8th, and 14th Amendments removed. As you might be able to guess from my username, I’m kind of a sticker for accuracy.

    • Ronamo

      In that case, you probably intended to use the word “stickler.”

      • Pedantic Douchebag

        thatsthejoke.jpg

      • bardfinn

        No, he means a gummed slip of laminar material intended to be adhered to a surface.

      • bardfinn

        Perhaps he could be a bumper stickler.

    • http://marjaerwin.livejournal.com/ Marja Erwin

      Since it’s pre-trial, it’s not considered punishment. Since we’re not corporations, it’s not considered to violate any person or property.

      This is majorly triggering, and there’s no safe space we can get to, and let me guess, getting triggered is suspicious behavior and grounds for being pain complied. I’m a survivor, I’m trans, and I’m asthmatic; I’m not sure I’d survive.

      • perch

        Word to this. I have serious fears about that sort of thing and even just went through a somewhat terrifying *minor* ordeal with the police. It was definitely scary staring down the maw of this beast.

        Trans and autistic myself, I can only see this strip search ending 1 way for me; in a corner, in a limp mess, sobbing and completely incoherent.

      • bluest_one

        Since it’s pre-trial, it’s not considered punishment

        Well, it sounds like “extra-judicial punishment” to me. And that’s how it’s going to be used. Guaranteed. :sadface:

  • http://www.dylanmccall.com/ dylan-m

    I wonder if they held this back for a day so people would believe it was actually happening?

  • Locien

    John Roberts and the rest of the conservatives are making shit up.  There is no judicial restraint, they’re making up (terrible) reasons for their decisions.

  • jhertzli

    I never realized the Supreme Court would have its own April Fool’s prank.

  • humanresource

    At least they are proving that it really does make a difference whether you vote in a democrat or republican president, because law has been utterly supplanted by partisan politics at the highest levels.

    • Melinda9

       Did you mean ‘does not make a difference’?

  • bardfinn

    “May”. If you rate separate-from-general-population holding, say, if you’re a recognisable face, and you might not be received well by genpop, and you’re likely to make bail, or the police running intake know you and like you…

    The entire problem with this decision is the “may”. If they’d just fucking make “may” into “must”, there’d suddenly be a whole lot of rich / influential / famous people getting tickets for alleged infractions that poor folks get arrested for without a second’s thought.

  • knappa

    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.

    Of course neither one of these examples really fits. It wasn’t allowing strip searches which caught or convicted McVeigh. Neither was a strip search for a speeding ticket going to catch the 9/11 terrorist he refers to. It isn’t as if they used rectal bombs. 

    • rattypilgrim

       A few weeks ago I read Homeland Security warned Starbucks baristas to be on the look out for customers who paid in cash on the theory said coffee drinkers were hiding their law breaking plans. If that’s the case shouldn’t we all be driving over the speed limit, pilfering grapes at the grocery store, etc, because as non-terrorists we have nothing to hide?
      That said, today’s SCOTUS decision declares every person in the U.S. (tourists included) the enemy. And if corporations are people can they be strip searched?

    • http://mordicai.livejournal.com Mordicai

      “If we make everyone a prisoner, we’ll definitely catch some ‘bad guy’ so pony up to the bar & bend over!”

    • ganman

      Exactly!  This is the chilling aspect of the decision to me — Kennedy is citing evidence that in NO WAY supports the ruling.  This sort of flawed reasoning should make first-year law students wince.

  • BBNinja

    Instead of debating the constitutionality of the strip search after his wrongful arrest  Florence should have focused on the wrongful arrest itself and a way for the Police to pull their heads out of their ass so after issuing a letter saying his parket tickets are paid off they actually update their computer systems and then when he presents the letter to a police officer they actually recognize their own damn letters, don’t arrest, jail and strip search him.

    • Adrienne Kelso

       You appear to be the only person commenting who is actually familiar with the details of the incident, rather than just experiencing a knee-jerk reaction to the sensationalistic headline.

    • chgoliz

      But aren’t they related?

      I seem to remember reading something about “innocent until proven guilty” somewhere along the line.

      Strip searching presumed-innocent people because they MIGHT be proved guilty of something IF we perform what used to be considered an unreasonable search on them….how is that constitutional?  Especially when (as in a majority of cases) there is no legitimate concern for potential violence?

      Besides, if law enforcement cannot keep someone safe from crime (or committing crime) while in jail awaiting arraignment, then whose fault is that, exactly?

      The guy spent a week in jail before the authorities acknowledged their error.  It is the responsibility of law enforcement to handle the situation correctly in all aspects, not exacerbate the situation.

  • Petzl

    This type of shit should be the answer to anyone who says “What does it matter how I vote? They’re all the same.”  If they had eyes to see or brains to think, many Teapartier/Libertarians, who claim they are so concerned with civil and personal rights, would be voting democratic.

    • Rindan

      You realize that Obama is defending this and a half a dozen other “fuck you liberty” laws, right?  He isn’t as bad as Bush, but he isn’t much better either.  Maybe when he gets done mauling Romney he will suddenly grow a pair and roll back this cowardly Homeland Security “fuck the fourth and fifth amendments” madness, but I’m not holding my breathing.  

      Presidents and congress grab power for the government and spend their days and nights trying to take back the few rights that citizens have.  This is one of their few bipartisan activities.

      But hey, what do I know.  I live in Massachusetts.  Because of the electoral collage, my vote literally does not count.  If a democrat presidential contender loses Massachusetts, he also managed to lose 48 other states.

      • Antinous / Moderator

        The Tea Party is currently running both the Republican and Democratic parties.  The only difference is that they run one with phone calls and lunches and the other one via the media.  Richard Nixon would be considered a communist these days.

        • chgoliz

          Don’t forget: Warren Buffet is a socialist.

          I’m still shaking my head over that one.

        • http://profiles.yahoo.com/u/42THFKXIPMJHQBIH6OPI4RVIDY Thebes

          You’re mistaking the Tea Party for all Corporatists.

          In many cases they are the same. But there are at least three factions of Corporatists dickering over how to rape and pillage us- NeoConservatives, NeoLiberals, and with the largely co-opted Tea Party now we have NeoLibertarians. All three groups believe somewhat as their older counterparts did, but with Corporatism (ie Fascism) added in.

          Slavery was the state backed legal fiction that a Person was Property.
          Corporations are the state backed legal fiction that Property is a Person.

      • Navin_Johnson

         Same for me in Illinois.

    • falnfenix

      Please, don’t lump Libertarians in with “teapartiers.”  They’re definitely not the same…at least, not since the Republicans got involved with the latter.
      Libertarians want to take over the government and leave everyone alone.  Good luck getting that with either of the polarized parties.

      • wysinwyg

         No, not really.  I bet if you went to a tea party event and asked people what their political affiliation is a great many would say “libertarian.”  Now you may object that just because they call themselves “libertarians” doesn’t mean they actually are…but that’s meaningless to me.  Because the fact is a great many of the people calling themselves “libertarians” do NOT want to “leave everyone alone.” 

        • falnfenix

          Have you attended an event?

      • http://www.openbuddha.com/ Al Billings

         And here I just thought Libertarians wanted to only fuck the poor over.

        Libertarians are the “I’ve got mine, Jack” party of selfish bastards. If you’re poor, they don’t care about you and it is your own fault. You don’t need public schools, police, or roads either!

      • Antinous / Moderator

        Libertarians want to take over the government and leave everyone alone.

        Just like Communists want everyone to share the wealth and be happy.  But those Libertarians and those Communists only live in Pleasantville.  In the real world, most of them want all the stuff for themselves at the expensive of the lives and happiness of everybody else.

    • http://profiles.yahoo.com/u/42THFKXIPMJHQBIH6OPI4RVIDY Thebes

      BOTH major political parties are eviscerating our rights at a dizzying pace.
      Just in case you’ve been wearing Blue Tinted glasses for the past three years…

  • cdh1971

    It’s at times like these the great heaven knows
    That we wish we had not so many clothes
    So let’s loosen up with a playful tease
    Like all lovers did through the centuries

    We’re just following ancient history
    If I strip for you will you strip for me?
    We’re just following ancient history
    If I strip for you will you strip for me?
    Uh-huh-huh

  • http://noctilucent-studios.blogspot.com/ Noctilucent Studios

    Fuck This.

    Fear Nothing.

  • teapot

    I remember when the rest of the world (well, Australians at least) looked at America as an example of liberty enshrined in law. Now this.

    I don’t plan on visiting China any time soon and I certainly am not keen to revisit America anymore. Don’t worry ‘merica – you’re better than China in that I’d still come and visit you (if I was getting paid to).

  • TheKaz1969

    ANY arrest? what is I make a citizen’s arrest?

  • Robert

    Just to make it clear: this is before being thrown in jail. It’s not like some cop is going to pull you over for speeding and then pants you. And I am no longer surprised about what Wikipedia contains.

    • Ihavenofuckingname

       Just to make clear: this is before a trial.  So, in fact, a cop CAN pull you over for speeding, fabricate cause to arrest you if you’re not submissively compliant, and THEN hand you off for sexual humiliation.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Beth-Cravens/704440406 Beth Cravens

    Is there anywhere in this country where we can expect not to be groped? The thing that irks me the most is that before 9/11 there was no problem separating the desperadoes from your small time crooks. Now they act like “oh the burden.” I don’t get it. What, if anything, really changed? I think our Supreme Court has gone round the bend.