Safford Unified Sch. Dist. # 1 v. Redding
| Decision Date | 25 June 2009 |
| Docket Number | No. 08–479.,08–479. |
| Parties | SAFFORD UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT # 1, et al., Petitioners, v. April REDDING. |
| Court | U.S. Supreme Court |
557 U.S. 364
129 S.Ct. 2633
174 L.Ed.2d 354
SAFFORD UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT # 1, et al., Petitioners
v.
April REDDING.
No. 08–479.
Supreme Court of the United States
Argued April 21, 2009.
Decided June 25, 2009.
Matthew W. Wright, Phoenix, AZ, for petitioners.
David O'Neil for the United States as amicus curiae, by special leave of the Court, supporting reversal.
Adam B. Wolf, Santa Cruz, CA, for respondent.
Matthew W. Wright, Counsel of Record, David K. Pauole, Holm Wright Hyde & Hays PLC, Phoenix, AZ, for petitioners.
Bruce G. MacDonald, McNamara, Goldsmith, Jackson & MacDonald, P.C., Andrew J. Petersen, Humphrey & Petersen, P.C., Tucson, AZ, Daniel Joseph Pochoda, ACLU of Arizona, Phoenix, AZ, Adam B. Wolf, Counsel of Record, Graham A. Boyd, M. Allen Hopper, American Civil Liberties Union Foundation, Santa Cruz, CA, Steven R. Shapiro, American Civil Liberties Union Foundation, New York, NY, for respondent.
Opinion
Justice SOUTER delivered the opinion of the Court.
The issue here is whether a 13–year–old student's Fourth Amendment right was violated when she was subjected to a search of her bra and underpants by school officials acting on reasonable suspicion that she had brought forbidden prescription and over-the-counter drugs to school. Because there were no reasons to suspect the drugs presented a danger or were concealed in her underwear, we hold that the search did violate the Constitution, but because there is reason to question the clarity with which the right was
established, the official who ordered the unconstitutional search is entitled to qualified immunity from liability.
I
The events immediately prior to the search in question began in 13–year–old Savana Redding's math class at Safford Middle School one October day in 2003. The assistant principal of the school, Kerry Wilson, came into the room and asked Savana to go to his office. There, he showed her a day planner, unzipped and open flat on his desk, in which there were several knives, lighters, a permanent marker, and a cigarette. Wilson asked Savana whether the planner was hers; she said it was, but that a few days before she had lent it to her friend, Marissa Glines. Savana stated that none of the items in the planner belonged to her.
Wilson then showed Savana four white prescription-strength ibuprofen 400–mg pills, and one over-the-counter blue naproxen 200–mg pill, all used for pain and inflammation but banned under school rules without advance permission. He asked Savana if she knew anything about the pills. Savana answered that she did not. Wilson then told Savana that he had received a report that she was giving these pills to fellow students; Savana denied it and agreed to let Wilson search her belongings. Helen Romero, an administrative assistant, came into the office, and together with Wilson they searched Savana's backpack, finding nothing.
At that point, Wilson instructed Romero to take Savana to the school nurse's office to search her clothes for pills. Romero and the nurse, Peggy Schwallier, asked Savana to remove her jacket, socks, and shoes, leaving her in stretch pants and a T-shirt (both without pockets), which she was then asked to remove. Finally, Savana was told to pull her bra out and to the side and shake it, and to pull out the elastic on her underpants, thus exposing her breasts and pelvic area to some degree. No pills were found.
Savana's mother filed suit against Safford Unified School District # 1, Wilson, Romero, and Schwallier for conducting a strip search in violation of Savana's Fourth Amendment rights. The individuals (hereinafter petitioners) moved for summary judgment, raising a defense of qualified immunity. The District Court for the District of Arizona granted the motion on the ground that there was no Fourth Amendment violation, and a panel of the Ninth Circuit affirmed. 504 F.3d 828 (2007).
A closely divided Circuit sitting en banc, however, reversed. Following the two-step protocol for evaluating claims of qualified immunity, see Saucier v. Katz, 533 U.S. 194, 200, 121 S.Ct. 2151, 150 L.Ed.2d 272 (2001), the Ninth Circuit held that the strip search was unjustified under the Fourth Amendment test for searches of children by school officials set out in New Jersey v. T.L.O., 469 U.S. 325, 105 S.Ct. 733, 83 L.Ed.2d 720 (1985). 531 F.3d 1071, 1081–1087 (2008). The Circuit then applied the test for qualified immunity, and found that Savana's right was clearly established at the time of the search: “ ‘[t]hese notions of personal privacy are “clearly established” in that they inhere in all of us, particularly middle school teenagers, and are inherent in the privacy component of the Fourth Amendment's proscription against unreasonable searches.’ ” Id., at 1088–1089 (quoting Brannum v. Overton Cty. School Bd., 516 F.3d 489, 499 (C.A.6 2008) ). The upshot was reversal of summary judgment as to Wilson, while affirming the judgments in favor of Schwallier, the school nurse, and Romero, the administrative
assistant, since they had not acted as independent decisionmakers. 531 F.3d, at 1089.
We granted certiorari, 555 U.S. 1130, 129 S.Ct. 987, 173 L.Ed.2d 171 (2009), and now affirm in part, reverse in part, and remand.
II
The Fourth Amendment “right of the people to be secure in their persons ... against unreasonable searches and seizures” generally requires a law enforcement officer to have probable cause for conducting a search. “Probable cause exists where ‘the facts and circumstances within [an officer's] knowledge and of which [he] had reasonably trustworthy information [are] sufficient in themselves to warrant a man of reasonable caution in the belief that’ an offense has been or is being committed,” Brinegar v. United States, 338 U.S. 160, 175–176, 69 S.Ct. 1302, 93 L.Ed. 1879 (1949) (quoting Carroll v. United States, 267 U.S. 132, 162, 45 S.Ct. 280, 69 L.Ed. 543 (1925) ), and that evidence bearing on that offense will be found in the place to be searched.
In T.L.O., we recognized that the school setting “requires some modification of the level of suspicion of illicit activity needed to justify a search,” 469 U.S., at 340, 105 S.Ct. 733, and held that for searches by school officials “a careful balancing of governmental and private interests suggests that the public interest is best served by a Fourth Amendment standard of reasonableness that stops short of probable cause,” id., at 341, 105 S.Ct. 733. We have thus applied a standard of reasonable suspicion to determine the legality of a school administrator's search of a student, id., at 342, 345, 105 S.Ct. 733, and have held that a school search “will be permissible in its scope when the measures adopted are reasonably related to the objectives of the search and not excessively intrusive in light of the age and sex of the student and the nature of the infraction,” id., at 342, 105 S.Ct. 733.
A number of our cases on probable cause have an implicit bearing on the reliable knowledge element of reasonable suspicion, as we have attempted to flesh out the knowledge component
by looking to the degree to which known facts imply prohibited conduct, see, e.g., Adams v. Williams, 407 U.S. 143, 148, 92 S.Ct. 1921, 32 L.Ed.2d 612 (1972) ; id., at 160, n. 9, 92 S.Ct. 1921 (Marshall, J., dissenting), the specificity of the information received, see, e.g., Spinelli v. United States, 393 U.S. 410, 416–417, 89 S.Ct. 584, 21 L.Ed.2d 637 (1969), and the reliability of its source, see, e.g., Aguilar v. Texas, 378 U.S. 108, 114, 84 S.Ct. 1509, 12 L.Ed.2d 723 (1964). At the end of the day, however, we have realized that these factors cannot rigidly control, Illinois v. Gates, 462 U.S. 213, 230, 103 S.Ct. 2317, 76 L.Ed.2d 527 (1983), and we have come back to saying that the standards are “fluid concepts that take their substantive content from the particular contexts” in which they are being assessed. Ornelas v. United States, 517 U.S. 690, 696, 116 S.Ct. 1657, 134 L.Ed.2d 911 (1996).
Perhaps the best that can be said generally about the required knowledge component of probable cause for a law enforcement officer's evidence search is that it raise a “fair probability,” Gates, 462 U.S., at 238, 103 S.Ct. 2317, or a “substantial chance,” id., at 244, n. 13, 103 S.Ct. 2317, of discovering evidence of criminal activity. The lesser standard for school searches could as readily be described as a moderate chance of finding evidence of wrongdoing.
III
A
In this case, the school's policies strictly prohibit the nonmedical use, possession,
or sale of any drug on school grounds, including “ ‘[a]ny prescription or over-the-counter drug, except those for which permission to use in school has been granted pursuant to Board policy.’ ” App. to Pet. for Cert. 128a.1 A week before Savana was searched, another
student, Jordan Romero (no relation of the school's administrative assistant), told the principal and Assistant Principal Wilson that “certain students were bringing drugs and weapons on campus,” and that he had been sick after taking some pills that “he got from a classmate.” App. 8a. On the morning of October 8, the same boy handed Wilson a white pill that he said Marissa Glines had given him. He told Wilson that students were planning to take the pills at lunch.
Wilson learned from Peggy Schwallier, the school nurse, that the pill was Ibuprofen 400 mg, available only by prescription. Wilson then called Marissa out of class. Outside the classroom, Marissa's teacher handed Wilson the day planner, found within Marissa's reach, containing various contraband items. Wilson escorted Marissa back to his office.
In the presence of Helen Romero, Wilson requested Marissa to turn out her pockets and open her wallet. Marissa produced a blue pill, several white ones, and a razor blade. Wilson asked where the blue pill came from, and Marissa answered, “ ‘I guess it slipped in when she gave me the IBU 400s.’ ” Id., at 13a. When Wilson...
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