Eastern Kentucky University
Obscuring the Fourth Amendment: A Review of Judicial Decisions on Strip Searches in the United States
Institution
Eastern Kentucky University
Faculty Advisor/ Mentor
David May
Abstract
Over the past 40 years, courts in the United States have been presented with numerous cases involving strip searching at various levels throughout the criminal justice system. There has been a wide diversity of judicial opinions regarding inmates’ rights concerning strip searches and cavity searches. In this paper, I will examine judicial opinions (both the majority and the dissenting opinions, when available) at various levels in the United States that ruled on this issue. Preliminary evidence suggests that lower court rulings have generally supported public opinion while Supreme Court rulings have generally eroded inmates’ privacy protections by ruling with the criminal justice system, particularly in cases where defendants are facing long-term incarceration in prison. I anticipate that the findings from this paper will illuminate the fact that there is wide disparity in court rulings around this issue, and there appears to be a disjunction between the opinions of the United States Supreme court and lower courts at both the state and federal levels.
Obscuring the Fourth Amendment: A Review of Judicial Decisions on Strip Searches in the United States
Over the past 40 years, courts in the United States have been presented with numerous cases involving strip searching at various levels throughout the criminal justice system. There has been a wide diversity of judicial opinions regarding inmates’ rights concerning strip searches and cavity searches. In this paper, I will examine judicial opinions (both the majority and the dissenting opinions, when available) at various levels in the United States that ruled on this issue. Preliminary evidence suggests that lower court rulings have generally supported public opinion while Supreme Court rulings have generally eroded inmates’ privacy protections by ruling with the criminal justice system, particularly in cases where defendants are facing long-term incarceration in prison. I anticipate that the findings from this paper will illuminate the fact that there is wide disparity in court rulings around this issue, and there appears to be a disjunction between the opinions of the United States Supreme court and lower courts at both the state and federal levels.