What's truly amazing is that the people upset by the lower court's opinion and the S. Ct. Justice's comments want . . .

Judges to issue warrants for this type of search.

Wouldn't that be the right way to handle it? I mean if you really had solid probable cause then you have three choices:
1) do nothing
2) do something likely unlawful or at least icky
3) follow the procedures

If a judge signs off on the idea I 'm a lot more comfortable with it... unless Scalia was the judge in question, I guess.

No school employee shall conduct a search that involves:
(a) Conducting a body cavity search of a pupil manually or with an instrument.
(b) Removing or arranging any or all of the clothing of a pupil to permit a visual inspection of the underclothing, breast, buttocks, or genitalia of the pupil.

Is that so hard to write?

Judges to issue warrants for this type of search.

I really hope Scalia was being sarcastic.

I am also curious as to just how many school students have died or been seriously harmed by taking ibuprofen. I think one question that should be answered is level of risk, when determining if a search of underpants is acceptable.

“You search in the student’s pack, you search the student’s outer garments, and you have a reasonable suspicion that the student has drugs,” he said. “Don’t you have, after conducting all these other searches, a reasonable suspicion that she has drugs in her underpants?”

“You’ve searched everywhere else,” Justice Scalia said. “By God, the drugs must be in her underpants.”

What's amazing is not that Scalia is routinely so thoroughly asinine, but that being such a douche bag he still managed to become a supreme court justice and is looked up to by no small number of people on the right.

Antonin "By God, the drugs must be in her underpants" Scalia, ladies and gentelmen.

“My thought process,” Justice Souter said, “is I would rather have the kid embarrassed by a strip search, if we can’t find anything short of that, than to have some other kids dead because the stuff is distributed at lunchtime and things go awry.

Maybe we had best strip search every kid, every day. After all, its better than perhaps missing something that might lead to a tragedy.

Hey, if we are going to move towards being a police state, why not start training people how to submit while they are still young and impressionable.? One of many things I find troubling about this is that the young lady in question did not resist the search with physical violence, which is sure as hell what i would have done if a school official had tried to get my pants off for any reason.

"Are you implying that homosexuals are automatically attracted to same-sex minors?"

--is that asking same gendered school personnel to conduct the search is no guarantee that there isn't lascivious motivation or misconduct; not that any sexual preference increases that likelihood, only that it increases the possibility to 100% of the school personnel population.

Who is approved to conduct these searches? You are not allowed to ask if the same-sex teacher or administrator is homosexual so how do you determine which school official can conduct the search without it being sexually charged to the searcher?

Are you implying that homosexuals are automatically attracted to same-sex minors?

"“You’ve searched everywhere else,” Justice Scalia said. “By God, the drugs must be in her underpants.”"

I agree with this. I think, at least when it comes to things like ibuprofen or other OTC medications in possession of students it is more the fear that a child will have a reaction and sue the district than a fear that the student has a drug.

I am also not overly bothered, if there is reasonable suspicion having school officials search a backpack or have a student empty their pockets, but I think anything beyond that should involve a parent being present and if the concern is for an OTC med, you give up the search after the backpack and emptied pockets turn up nothing.

And here I was thinking that titling a post "Carrie Prejean bikini pics" was the nadir of shameless Google-keyword exploitation. I tip my hat to you, Dr. Joyner. No wonder you'r making $75,000 a year!

Maybe you would like to propose beating him with a baseball bat?