Strange ruling — the decision was 8-1 that the search was illegal, and the dissenting judge was Clarence Thomas.
The overall decision was 6-3, because the 6-member majority ruled that the administrators were not LIABLE for damages from the strip search since the court was making a new rule that they couldn’t have known about; two judges disagreed and thought the administrators should be held liable (Thomas obviously didn’t because he thought the search was legal).
I’m looking forward to reading Thomas’ dissent, because I’m sure I disagree with him, but his reasoning always makes me think about things.
It makes ME think that he's gone crazy. It's more or less, "well, her backpack didn't have pills in it, and apparently it's a given that she had pills SOMEWHERE, so start the cavity search!"
Only Justice Clarence Thomas dissented, writing that “judges are not qualified to second-guess the best manner for maintaining quiet and order in the school environment”
now, I’m interested in seeing people’s opinion on that other ruling on Defendants Have Right To Confront Analysts of Forensics. was it posted?
The decision scrambled the court’s usual ideological lineup. Scalia was joined by the court’s most conservative member, Justice Clarence Thomas, as well as liberals John Paul Stevens, David H. Souter and Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Kennedy, who normally is the decision-maker when the two factions disagree, wrote the dissent for Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., and Justices Stephen G. Breyer and Samuel A. Alito Jr.