Strip Searches of Arrestees at the Jail after Florence

I’m just getting back to work after a leave of absence, and I’m still getting caught up on some major cases that were decided while I was out. One such case is Florence v. Board of Chosen Freeholders, __ U.S. __, 132 S. Ct. 1510 (2012), the jail strip search case recently decided by the Supreme Court. I wrote about that subject in this prior post, but the Court’s new opinion in Florence changes the legal landscape and calls for an update. In Florence, the Court considered whether the Fourth Amendment permits a jail to conduct a suspicionless strip search of everyone arrested for any minor offense, no matter the circumstances. The petitioner in the case, Albert Florence, was arrested during a 2005 traffic stop based on an outstanding warrant for failing to appear in a prior criminal case. There is some indication that the warrant shouldn’t have been in the officer’s computer system at all—Mr. Florence had long since paid the fine that had led to its issuance—but it nevertheless led to seven days of confinement in two county jails in New Jersey. At both jails, Mr. Florence was, pursuant to standard operating procedures, subjected to non-contact searches that involved removing all of his clothing and manipulating his body so officers could check for body markings, medical issues, and contraband. Florence sued the jails under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, claiming it violated the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments to perform a search like that on a person arrested for a minor [...]