Big school privacy case to go before Supreme Court

[MysticCat]

For the legal geeks, the petition, opp-cert and briefs filed so far can be found here.

The Supreme Court has accepted two questions presented in this case:

1. Whether the Fourth Amendment prohibits public school officials from conducting a search of a student suspected of possessing and distributing a prescription drug on campus in violation of school policy.

2. Whether the Ninth Circuit departed from established principles of qualified immunity in holding that a public school administrator may be liable in a damages lawsuit under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 for conducting a search of a student suspected of possessing and distributing a prescription drug on campus.

I have only scanned the petition and opp-cert. In essense, it appears that the school district is arguing that the 9th Circuit applied a criminal standard for a search ("probable cause") that the Supreme Court has repeatedly held does not apply in the school context, and that the 9th Circuit substituted its judgment for that of the school officials as to whether a search and what kind of search was warranted, again something the Supreme Court has counseled against. The ACLU, for the student, seems to argue basically that the 9th Circuit's opinion is completely consistent with Supreme Court precedent and the decisions of other circuits.

I can only say that I would have to assume that the Court's granting of cert indicates that at least 4 justices disagree with the ACLU about the 9th Circuit's decision being consistent with other SCOTUS and circuit cases -- otherwise, they would have seen no reason to take the case.

Perhaps I'm giving relying too much on the fact that this comes out of the 9th Circuit, but I'd put my money on the school district winning this one. Based on my quick read of the filings, that's the way I lean to thinking it should come out.

[KSigkid]

MC, thanks for the link. We were talking about this at length last night in my Right to Privacy class, so I wanted to see what people's opinions were on the subject. (I'm getting to be a nerd on these issues, so please excuse the length of the post)

It's an interesting case for the Court to take, and part of me wonders if there reason for taking it was because the 9th Circuit went so far above and beyond the Court precedent.

As I understand it, after T.L.O (another case involving a search of a student at a public school), there's a two-fold test that the court has to go through. First, is the search reasonable at its inception, and second, whether it was permissible in its scope. T.L.O was in the context of a non-law enforcement search, though, and it seems like the 9th Circuit's opinion is erasing the distinction between law enforcement and non-law enforcement searches by seeking a "probable cause" requirement. That, and there's the whole qualified immunity issue, where the Circuit said that the law on searches is "clearly established," kind of funny in light of the fact that the Circuit's decision was 6-5.

In my reading of the case and the news articles, I'd guess that the search would fail under the T.L.O. standard; even if it was justified at its inception, the scope of the search seems "impermissible" to say the least. Seriously, a strip search, to that extent, for ibuprofen? All based on the accusations of one student?

That said, I agree that I think this will be reversed, because the 9th Circuit went WAY too far in its analysis.

/ end dorkiness

[MysticCat]

Originally Posted by KSigkid

It's an interesting case for the Court to take, and part of me wonders if there reason for taking it was because the 9th Circuit went so far above and beyond the Court precedent.

Frankly, I can't see any reason that four justices would vote to take it other than that they think the 9th Circuit went way too far (again).

[SydneyK]

Originally Posted by KSigkid

Seriously, a strip search, to that extent, for ibuprofen? All based on the accusations of one student?

Prescriptions are prescriptions, and I can understand that part of the school's justification behind the search. Who wants to identify every prescription that is acceptable and every prescription that is unacceptable?

The fact that the search was based on the accusations of one student is what seems sketchy. (I guess the school defends that by saying the student who was searched was rowdy at a dance some weeks prior to the search. I dunno, when I think of middle school dances, calmness is not a word that immediately comes to mind.)

I'm certainly no lawyer, but I can see the student's (and her mother's) point. The statement that was made regarding the student's failure to get caught breaking the rules makes it sound like she might have been targeted by the administration (as well as by the accuser).