By now you may have heard that the Supreme Court has ruled that there is no 4th amendment protection for American citizens against unreasonable, humiliating and highly invasive strip searches – a procedure that would be torture for most of us.
Who does that remind us of? Hm. Let's see...
And there is another case the Supreme Court will be deciding on: a case about a Colorado man who was thrown in jail after telling Vice President Cheney in 2006 that the Bush Administration's policies in Iraq were ‘disgusting.’
Regarding the first case and according to Salon.com:
The 5-judge conservative faction held that prison officials may strip-search anyone arrested even for the most minor offenses before admitting them to the general population of a jail or prison…
From
Businessweek.com (emphasis mine):
It is a defeat for Albert W. Florence, who claimed in a lawsuit that he was strip-searched twice during his week behind bars in two New Jersey counties, Burlington and Essex. Florence was jailed following his arrest for failing to pay a years-old fine, which in reality he had already paid.
Florence got stopped for speeding. Wait, actually, his wife was speeding he just sat in the car.
What this means: From now on, if you get stopped by a police officer for a broken tail light or you are driving with someone who gets stopped for some reason, and say the police finds you have unpaid tickets or he doesn’t like you, he can take you to jail and strip search you – and you have no right to complain – because it is a legal procedure in the USA.
The spirit of Dick Cheney, who’s only half here since his original heart has been removed, has possessed the 5 conservatives in the Supreme Court! But what is very disappointing and I usually have good reason to defend president Obama on most of his decisions, is that according to Salon.com and businessweek.com, the Obama administration urged the Court to reach the conclusion it reached.
The Supreme Court's ruling in Florence is also an affront to international law and universal human rights, which the United States purports to uphold:
According to Article 5 of the U.N. Declaration of Human Rights, "No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment." Yet there is nothing more degrading or inhuman than forcibly strip-searching a person arrested for a minor crime. Just ask Albert Florence who described the experience of being strip searched as "humiliating. It made me feel less than a man."
I feel like I am back in Fujimori's 1998 Peruvian police state. But wait, really this is happending in the US?
Talking about Cheney…. Since the Supreme Court has veered so sharply into rightwing politics, it will be especially interesting to watch them rule on this upcoming case:
“The U.S. Supreme Court hears arguments Wednesday in a case involving the arrest of a Colorado man who was thrown in jail after telling Vice President Cheney in 2006 that the Bush Administration's policies in Iraq were ‘disgusting.’ Though Howards initially told the secret service he had not touched the vice president, after reflecting on the encounter, he later conceded that he was wrong. He says he patted the vice president on the shoulder, meaning no harm.
Don’t we all know how they will rule? And unfortunately the Obama administration is siding against the citizen and the constitution and for the police state. That is disappointing. What is also disappointing is that the right-wingers who accuse him of socialism are not celebrating over this victory.