The Other Supreme Court Ruling

I have a few brief words to share about the newest Supreme Court ruling as we steel ourselves for the judicial outcome of health care.

Today the Supreme Court ruled that strip searches are permissible in arrests for any offense, even minor ones. The argument is that a strip search is not an unreasonable search and seizure and therefore not in violation of the 4th Amendment. In addition, the majority opinion argued that the court does not have the authority to regulate this type of activity, leaving many state laws in opposition to the federal norm in place.

The minority opinion, in addition to asserting that these strip searches are indeed a violation of the 4th Amendment, argues that strip searches violate the right to privacy - the plaintiff in this case and Justice Stephen G. Breyer, who wrote the minority opinion, spoke of unconstitutional humiliation. However, the majority opinion disagreed.

That is what really worries me. If the decision is about limiting the right to privacy, then this case may be setting up precedent to offset Griswold v. Connecticut and the more famous Roe v. Wade, the leading cases establishing the judicially accepted constitutional right to privacy in the context of birth control and abortion rights. Perhaps this is the true goal of the conservative court, to pave way for a legal justification for the overturn of those controversial decisions. If so, this ruling may have much deeper political ramifications than first meets the eye.