School Strip-Search Illegal

Back in March I wrote about the case of a thirteen-year old girl who was stripped searched because the school thought she had ibuprofen, of all things. The case reached the Supreme Court, and the court ruled that the search was illegal in an 8-1 decision.  In writing for the majority, Justice Souter wrote,

school officials must have a reasonable suspicion of the presence of dangerous contraband or information that contraband is hidden in a student's underwear before "a search can reasonably make the quantum leap from outer clothes and backpacks to exposure of intimate parts."

That shouldn't be too much to ask. Resorting to a strip-search based on nothing more than an unsubstantiated allegation was way over the line.