It might seem that in the United States, being pulled over for
driving without a seat belt should not end with the government ordering
you to take off your clothes and “lift your genitals.” But there is no
guarantee that this is the case – not since the Supreme Court ruled
this week that the Constitution does not prohibit the government from
strip searching people charged with even minor offenses. The court’s 5-4
ruling turns a deeply humiliating procedure – one most Americans would
very much like to avoid – into a routine law enforcement tactic.
This case arose when a man named Albert Florence was pulled over by
New Jersey state troopers while he was driving to his parents’ house
with his wife and young son. The trooper arrested him for failing to pay
a fine – even though, it turned out, he actually had paid the fine.
Florence was thrown into the Essex County Correctional Facility, which
has a strip search policy for all new arrestees.
