In 1907, Charles Evans Hughes, New York governor and eventual chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, said, “The judiciary is the safeguard of liberty ... under the Constitution.”
Alexander Hamilton, secretary of the treasury and an author of The Federalist Papers, wrote in Federalist 78 that the judicial branch “is equally requisite to guard the Constitution and the rights of individuals from the effects ... of occasional ill humors in the society.”
Though the Supreme Court of the United States is supposed to act as this safeguard of individual rights against majority rule and expansions in executive power, it does not always side with the individual.
On Monday, according to NPR, the Supreme Court ruled 5-4 “that guards may routinely strip search even minor traffic offenders when they are arrested and detained.”
When Albert Florence was pulled over by a state trooper in 2005, his records showed that he had a 7-year-old outstanding arrest warrant for failing to pay a fine.
Although Florence had a receipt in his car indicating that the fine had been paid, the state trooper arrested Florence and took him to jail. The story by NPR says that Florence “was held in jail for seven days and strip-searched twice.”
Florence eventually sued, arguing that he was subjected to unreasonable searches as described in the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution.
Unfortunately for Florence, the majority disagreed. Justice Anthony Kennedy, who wrote the majority opinion for the court, argued that “the courts must defer to the judgment of correctional officials in order to prevent new inmates from putting lives at risk with weapons or contraband that they may ‘carry in on their bodies.’”
In his dissent, Justice Stephen Breyer countered that correctional officials need to have a reasonable justification for conducting a strip search on minor offenders. He also noted that those charged with minor offenses probably did not plan on being arrested and, therefore, would not have tried to hide contraband in their body cavities.
One of Kennedy’s main arguments was completely asinine and illogical. He argued that the fact that Timothy McVeigh was pulled over and charged for a minor offense and turned out to be the Oklahoma City bomber shows how minor offenders could be dangerous criminals.
The chances of something like that happening on a regular basis are slim to none.
Finally, the majority was made up of conservative justices — the same justices who argued that the mandate in “Obamacare” requiring everyone to purchase health insurance gives the government too much power. Can you see the contradiction?
The government’s police powers have grown tremendously since 9/11, and Fourth Amendment protections continue to shrink.
The Supreme Court, or this supposed “safeguard of liberty,” has failed to live up to its role.
