New Mexico Civil Rights Law Blog : New Mexico Civil Rights Lawyer & Attorney : Kennedy Law Firm : Albuquerque NM Excessive Force & Police Misconduct

     Today a 13 year-old student from Arizona won an important victory for the privacy of minors in a school setting. Middle-schooler Savana Redding was accused by a fellow student of distributing prescription-strength drugs to other students. She was forced to endure a humiliating strip search by Helen Romero, the school administrator, in addition to a second search by Peggy Schwallier, the school nurse. Savana’s mother, April Redding, sued on behalf of her daughter, while simultaneously managing to avoid any liability issues associated with her minor daughter allegedly throwing unsupervised parties in her own house, where alcohol and drugs were present. In the just-released slip opinion in Safford Unified School District #1, et. al. v. April Redding, 2009 WL 178472, the Court held that the search was a violation of Savana’s Fourth Amendment rights, but also that school officials were entitled to qualified immunity.

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     In a come-from-behind, but dubious victory for the Fourth Amendment, Justices Stevens and Scalia teamed up to deliver a surprise concurrence in the recent case of Arizona v. Gant, 129 S. Ct. 1710, 2009 U.S. LEXIS 3120 (2009).  After thoroughly reviewing the Court’s previous holdings in N.Y. v. Belton, 453 U.S. 454 (1981); Thornton v. United States, 541 U.S. 615 (2004); and Chimel v. California, 395 U.S. 752 (1969), commentators were shocked to learn there is actually something on which the liberal and conservative wings of the Court agree:
    Police may search the passenger compartment of a vehicle incident to a recent occupant's arrest only if it is reasonable to believe that the arrestee might access the vehicle at the time of the search or that the vehicle contains evidence of the offense of arrest.
    Continued ....

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