• Constitutional Law,  Education,  Search & Seizure

    OK to Strip Search 13-Year-Old Girl for . . . Ibuprofen?

    One look at that blog headline and it’s no surprise Friday’s Ninth Circuit decision in Redding v. Safford USD #1, case no. 05-15759 (9th Cir. Sept. 21, 2007) has garnerd some attention in the legal blogosphere. Predictably, some of the reaction has been at a gut level. See, for example, California Appellate Report or Decision of the Day. This is a section 1983 action by the 13-year-old girl against the school officials and the district for an alleged violation of her Fourth Amendment rights by searching her for pills. The search was initiated after a student claimed to have become ill from some pills distributed by the plaintiff and pills…