US Supreme Court Rules Motorists Can Be Strip Searched For Parking Tickets

Motorists can be strip searched over false allegations of unpaid parking tickets, the US Supreme Court ruled yesterday. A narrow 5 to 4 majority of justices held that it is more important for prison facilities to maintain security than to allow individuals charged with the most minor of infractions to avoid humiliation.

New Jersey resident Albert Florence was was making monthly payments on a civil fine and briefly fell behind in 2003. A warrant was issued for his arrest. Even though Florence promptly corrected the situation by paying within a week, the warrant improperly remained on his record. In 2005, a state trooper pulled Florence and his wife over in Burlington County and proceeded to arrest him based on what he saw on the computer readout. Florence was held for six days at the Burlington County Detention Center before being transferred to the Essex County Correctional Facility.

Florence was forced to strip and was blasted in a shower with a delousing agent. Guards then performed a visual inspection of his body cavities. A day after being admitted to the Essex County jail, the charges were dropped and Florence was released.

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I95SPEEDINGTICKETS - 4/3/2012 1:29:21 PM

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I hope he wins the Lawsuit.

atc98092 - 4/3/2012 1:49:52 PM

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Since this decision was by the Supreme Court, that means he lost, and can't take it any higher.

I95SPEEDINGTICKETS - 4/3/2012 6:39:49 PM

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According to my understanding the Ruling was with regards to the Prison Service being able to Strip Search anyone that is going to be "residing" there.

I would expect that the man would be suing the Police dept and officer that made the arrest based on the fact that the arrest was "Wrong".

Could any Autospies member who actually practices LAW in the USA clarify ?

vdiv - 4/3/2012 1:48:10 PM

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Damn it, 009, why do you always bring out the bad news?

IMHO the Supreme Court is out of touch with reality and needs to get some common sense knocked into them. Of course cases brought to them would be controversial and so would be their decisions, but recently it seems that these decisions are arbitrary and contrary to our basic principles as a nation.

Nice picture.

valhallakey - 4/5/2012 1:12:32 AM

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Interesting the 5 "conservative" justices upheld the strip search, while the 4 "liberal" justices voted for the individuals liberty first.

Need4Speed - 4/5/2012 11:11:55 PM

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It should be no surprise that a conservative will stand behind and promote any moral principle or ethical philosophy that has no chance of adversely him or her personally. If at any time any of these justices thought that someone else's finger, other than their own, would be rammed up their asses...the outcome of that judgement would have been different.