Clarence Thomas Stands Up for the Right to Strip Teenagers Naked
Hats off to Justice Clarence Thomas for his courageous stand on behalf of school officials' right to strip teenagers naked in an effort to find prescription pills. This great man has more than justified George H.W. Bush's faith in his character, dignity, and wisdom. Taking a position at odds with such moral relativists as Scalia, Roberts and Alito, Justice Thomas once again proved that he is indeed our Man For All Seasons.
Hopefully, one day school administrators will be free to strip all children bare-ass naked each and every morning, perhaps during the Pledge of Allegiance and the Prayers to God, so that parents can rest assured that pills of any sort will be kept out of class, not to speak of the weapons of mass destruction that could easily make their way through our nation's school doors.
Is it too much to suggest that with the Republican Party in such a moral wasteland with the activities of Messrs Ensign and Sanford, that its leaders look to Justice Thomas to lead them back to the promised land in 2012?
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I can't for the life of me figure out why adults seem to no longer have any judgment. All the school had to do was hold the girl and ask for police to come if they indeed suspected that she had contraband. No one's rights had to be violated. Or, and I know this is too much for these small minds, she could have simply been dismissed and sent home. What is so hard about taking one of these more reasonable courses of action if there was a suspected danger to another student? Does the principal strip search his own children?
she was strip-searched for allegedly possessing prescripti
which is why, if concerned, you call the police and her parents - then nobody's rights and privacy are violated - most of all a teenage girl going through puberty...
Which has what to do with ANYTHING??? If he suspected her of having contraband not to be found in her locker, backpack, or outer clothes, then he should have called in her parents and the police!
Prescription strength Ibuprofen, I believe, are 400 mg. or greater. 2 OTC tablets would equal 1 prescription strength.
All she had -- or supposedly had -- was prescripti
It was an entirely over the top reaction on the part of the school administration.
The police don't deal with that, which means that they need to call her parents. If the school officials think that it might be something more, then they can ALSO call in the police!
She didn't even have that as it turned out. A classmate said that the ibuprofen she had was given to her by this girl.
I believe every word Dr. Anita Hill spoke of this man.
He is one powerful woman hater
Why does the ONLY, OLD, African-American male on the Supreme Court believe a 13-year old GIRL should be strip searched for Advil? This makes me sick.
I completely agree with you. I believed her then and still do. It seems he relishes humiliating women.
What a travesty to have him seated on the SCOTUS. There are so many excellent, thoughtful and fair jurists who deserve the honor. Thomas is shameless.
If any school employee had stripped one of my daughters for ANY reason I wouldn't have to wait until the Supreme Court said ANYTHING before I did something. I'd have been up at that school and delivering some old fashioned "father justice" minutes after I heard to ALL involved.
You and me both. I'd have been arrested for killing the principal within a day or two, but.....
They are in court BECAUSE they pressed charged and attempted to sue.
I read Clarence Thomas' dissent and it is a disgrace. According to Thomas, there is no limit to how far school officials can go in searching students because school officials know better than judges how to keep order in schools. I thought the Constitution limited government intrusion to "reasonable" searches. I guess rummaging through the underwear of a teenage girl for mild pain meds is a "reasonable" search. Perhaps in your mind, Justice Thomas, but not in mine. Hmm, let's see... if they thought she was distributing these meds at school, they could have sent her home.
Fortunately, there are 8 other justices to make sure our daughters remain safe in school....
i agree....a
Actually, I did wonder what action the school took, after the search revealed nothing, about the student who made the accusation. And what further trouble she may have gotten into.
I wonder under what circumstances Thomas believes they should be strip searched - just any time a school official THINKS it's reasonable.
Does this man even have daughters? Or is he one of those Repubs for whom "compassion" is like "communist"?
the man truly is an embarrassment. thanks again, bush 1.....
d
Good attempt to try to misrepresent his opinion. Or did you actually read the parts of his agreement where he states the search was wrong, or his descent that complained about the Feds setting all rules for a local school, beyond protection of basic constitutional rights?
how does this guy not think its a basic constitutional right to be free of illegal strip searches?
I am very impressed with the men who wrote th constitution (to a degree, hey they were slave owners penning a document on equality) but anyone who goes with an old piece of paper that some other humans wrote on way back over what they KNOW to be right is stupid.
like religion.
dissent
I think the descent came when Thomas was confirmed.
If he thinks the search is wrong..why did he rule in favor of the school and against Savanna Redding.
he didnt think the search was wrong. he thought that it was reasonable to believe the pills were in her underwear based on the fact that they hadnt found them elsewhere on her person. AND he thought this would be an invitation to students to hide drugs in their undrwear. AMAZING, especially when you consider that the information on this student's alleged pill-carrying came from anopther student...
and besides, is this not the definition of judicial activism? He should be concerned about interpreting and applying the constitution, not about students becoming wise about where they hide their drugs.
...and thank you for the compliment.
Great post Andy - & I agree w/yomikey & WilliamRC - I think it's time that the MSM dig up their Anita Hill footage. Now, if we can find a reason to re-examine CJ Roberts + Scalia + Alito - that would be fun. But we still have to find out the simple truths behind the Wall ST. meltdown, NSA wiretapping, etc. Otherwise we won't know how many times we've been sent to the fun house mirror rooms.
And this is why we need more than 50% of the judges to be women.
Powerful men have no idea what it is like to be powerless.
But any woman of an age to be a Supreme Court Justice has been there.
Amen, sister!
We just need more than 50% of our judges doing their jobs: knowing and applying the law in a fair manner. To many Rushpublican appointed judges are complete failures on that point.
Nonsense..
You don't believe it because your brain is made of SIN!!!!!
If it wasn't for courageous and noble men like Judge Thomas protecting us from ourselves, we'd all be cannibalizing babies in the streets right after having huge wedding ceremonies between humans and their kitchen appliances.
[sorry for the hyperbole but this is SOO tiring...c
Look, Thomas' dissent is despicable, but enough with the women as victims crap; it gets really old and deflates enthusiasm in support of feminist issues. It is not just women who are, have been, and will be powerless. I've heard and read several comments about how the gender of the student was relative, which implies that it's more acceptable to strip search boys than girls. Misantric attitudes are every bit as caustic as misogynistic ones.
Um.... excuse me, but I've NEVER said that the gender of the child mattered!! Most of us haven't said that! Most of us are just disgusted by the fact that a school official felt that it was acceptable to strip search a child under their care!
From his dissent:
"Because the school officials searched in a location where the pills could have been hidden, the search was reasonable in scope under T. L. O."
What can you say?
We can say that Justice Thomas is the worst justice in the history of America.
I've been thinking the same thing.
Is there such a thing as a place where the pills COULD NOT have been hidden.
I don't think so.
That's true, but it doesn't make it reasonable to search anywhere that they could have been hidden, ESPECIALLY without reasonable cause to think that they were hidden anywhere!!
You would think that holding her incommunicado in an office for two hours and refusing to call her mother would have triggered the usual bleating about "parent's rights" that gets brought up over and over when the subject is birth control.
The right have very definite situation where Parental rights are important, and strip searching a 13 year old girl is not one of them!
Now is she wanted birth control...
I don't agree with his dissent but one point is worth pondering. The court decision has given those so inclined a place to hide whatever they wish hidden.
A student now can put whatever they want in their underwear with impunity. Is anyone naive enough to think this "loophole" won't be used with regularity?
what planet DO THESE PEOPLE LIVE IN? hey, sparkplug, these kids can't name a supreme court judge, much less do they follow the court's ruling.
I don't have kids, but if i did, i think i would want to make damn sure NOBODY that is not in law enforcement was in a position to make my child strip naked. If thats too much for you, be a decent parent and try to discourage your kids from doing stupid things, much less in their underwear.
The constitution was written to free people from your type of thinking.
Flacon, the court decision was not as broad as I would have liked. To me it is a constitutional right not to fear being strip searched in school by teachers and administrators.
In this country minors don't have constitutional rights. So we are very fortunate the court ruled in favor of the student. This is BIG step forward. But they did say this is a case by case decision. They exonerated the school personnel who administered the search, because there was no ruling prior to their decision to strip search. They said that alcohol and tobacco could be treated differently. I would assume this means anything that might constitute a danger to other students.
As for hiding advil in your underwear, I've never heard of anyone doing that. LOL
Yeah, I'm SOOOOOO concerned about kids hiding ADVIL in their underwear!!!!
Perhaps the solution is to break the zero tolerance for OTC pain medications that schools have!
Are you out of your mind? If the school had been reprimanded for pumping her stomach, would you argue that now students would know it was safe to swallow their contraband?
He's a piece of work alright. The president can ask him to resign. He doesn't have to agree but he can be asked to stepdown. He represents Conservative principles? He's coming from a wierder place than that.
I think that he needs to be impeached NOW!!!
maddy48:
Is there a place more weird than Conservative Principles, of late?
If so, let's search there.
Andrew,
I listened to an analysis of this case on NPR about a month ago and I think the allegation was that she had an ibuprophen tablet. Andrew, surely you can understand the need to strip our children in search of one anti-inflammatory.
Once again, Clarence Thomas stands for the proposition you can simply never be too far right. In fact, in his mind, there is probably no such thing as too far right. Why didn't we listen to Anita?
I did and felt she was telling the truth
She had motrin? What are we teaching our children, that they can have cramps and still go to school? That they can't be stripped and searched? How will they ever agree to be wiretapped if they don't learn the realities of fear young? How else can we foster a total lack of respect for authority?
Do you think we'd get the same result if the old boys club didn't have the threat of a discussion of the life experiences of a latina woman hanging over their heads?
When you get a chance check out the episodes of Boston Legal when they pretend to argue before the SupCt and rip Thomas.
How can you not remember the Anita Hill testimony? Once a creep, always a creep. If they had any shame, his appointment would have been one of the most embarrassing moments of GOP political history.
Clarence Thomas...a
Yes, at least the Warriors were able to trade Todd Fuller and Washburn.
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