Florence v. Board Of Chosen Freeholders Of The County Of Burlington

132 S.Ct. 1510 (2012)

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Nature of the Case

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Facts

P was arrested and eventually sentenced to pay a fine in monthly installments. In 2003, after he fell behind on his payments and failed to appear at an enforcement hearing, a bench warrant was issued for his arrest. He paid the outstanding balance less than a week later; but, for some unexplained reason, the warrant remained in a statewide computer database. Two years later, P and his wife were stopped in their automobile by a state trooper. Based on the outstanding warrant in the computer system, the officer arrested P and took him to the Burlington County Detention Center. He was held there for six days and then was transferred to the Essex County Correctional Facility. P was subjected to a full-on prison search of his person two times. P was released when the charges against him were dismissed. P sued the governmental entities (Ds) that operated the jails, one of the wardens, and certain other defendants. under 42 U. S. C. §1983 for violations of his Fourth and Fourteenth Amendment rights. P maintains that persons arrested for a minor offense could not be required to remove their clothing and expose the most private areas of their bodies to close visual inspection as a routine part of the intake process. P contends, officials could conduct this kind of search only if they had reason to suspect a particular inmate of concealing a weapon, drugs, or other contraband. The court granted P's motion for summary judgment on the unlawful search claim. It concluded that any policy of “strip searching” nonindictable offenders without reasonable suspicion violated the Fourth Amendment. A divided panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit reversed, holding that the procedures described by the District Court struck a reasonable balance between inmate privacy and the security needs of the two jails. The Supreme Court granted certiorari.