Supreme Court OK’s Strip Searches

If you get arrested, better have an alibi and a clean pair of underwear. The Supreme Court ruled on Monday that people arrested for any offense may be strip-searched before going to jail. There are about 13 million people sent to American jails every year, and Justice Anthony M. Kennedy wrote that now “every detainee who will be admitted to the general population may be required to undergo a close visual inspection while undressed.” Kennedy was joined by the Court’s conservative justices in the 5–4 ruling. In a dissenting opinion, Justice Stephen G. Breyer called strip searches “a serious affront to human dignity and to individual privacy.”