The ACLU reports that the Supreme Court did something right. All the men on the High Court, except for Clarence Thomas, listened to Justice Ginsberg, and at long last, Savana Redding has been vindicated.
Justice Souter wrote that the drugs in question - Ibuprofen! - did not justify an “embarrassing, frightening and humiliating search.” School officials ordered then 13-year-old Savana Redding "to strip to her bra and underpants and to pull them away from her body, exposing her breasts and pelvic area." This is the kind of crap that makes parents home-school their kids!
The Court ruled - 8 to 1 - that the strip search violated the 13-year-old girl's constitutional rights. The ACLU is calling this the biggest win for students' rights in 20 years, and it's because Savana Redding had the courage and patience to pursue justice. Today, Savana is a 19-year-old college student.
WaPo: The court's virtual unanimity was in contrast to the intense oral argument that seemed to exasperate the court's only female member, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. She later said her male colleagues seemed not to appreciate the trauma such a search would have on a developing adolescent.
"They have never been a 13-year-old girl," she told USA Today when asked about her colleagues' comments during the arguments. "It's a very sensitive age for a girl. I didn't think that my colleagues, some of them, quite understood."
But yesterday's opinion recognized just that.
Feminist Politics Gender News SCOTUS Savana Redding
