Poll: Should Jail Officials Be Allowed to Strip Search Anyone They Arrest?

Do jail authorities always have the right to strip search prisoners, even if they have been arrested for minor traffic offenses?

The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments Wednesday on behalf of a New Jersey man who argues that his constitutional rights were violated when he was twice subjected to a strip search in jail after being arrested for not paying a traffic fine.

The Associated Press has the details on the case of Albert Florence, who was riding in a car with his pregnant wife when she was stopped by a state trooper in 2005. He was arrested and taken to the Burlington County jail even though he insisted that he had already paid the traffic fine. There he was strip searched and six days later, still without having a hearing on his case before a judge, he was moved to the Essex County jail and strip searched again.

He was finally released after his attorney showed that Florence had paid the traffic fine, but it had not been removed from the police computer system.

He described his feelings during his prison stay in an interview with NPR's Nina Totenberg.

Florence, now a finance manager at a car dealership in New Jersey, told the Associated Press he plans to be in the audience when the Supreme Court hears arguments on his case Wednesday in Washington.

The Obama administration is arguing that because of the potential for drug and weapon smuggling in jails and prisons, authorities should be given broad discretion to conduct strip searches. The case has drawn more than 20 "friend of the court" (amicus curiae) briefs, with groups including the American Bar Association, the Medical Society of New Jersey, and several former New Jersey attorneys general supporting Florence, and the National Sheriffs Association and the Association of Counties, among others, backing jail officials.

You can read all of the legal arguments here.