Cato Files Brief Challenging Qualified Immunity for Warrantless Strip Search of 4-Year-Old

For over a year, Cato has been leading the charge to challenge the doctrine ofqualified immunity:  an atextual, ahistorical doctrine invented by the Supreme Court in the 1960s, which shields government agents from liability for misconduct – even when they break the law. Today marks a huge milestone in that ongoing campaign, as Cato has just filed an amicus brief in support of anew cert petition calling on the Court to reconsider this doctrine. So has adiverse, cross-ideological alliance of over a dozen prominent public interest groups, as well a group of leading qualified immunity scholars. In the words of Wyatt Earp: “You called down the thunder. Well, now you ’vegot it!”The case at issue isI.B. and Doe v. Woodard. When I.B. was a four-year-old girl, she was strip searched and photographed at her preschool by April Woodard, a state caseworker. Woodard had neither a warrant, nor the consent of the girl or her mother, nor were there any exigent circumstances requiring such an invasive search. All she had were unfounded abuse allegations (specifically, of a few marks and bruises on I.B.) which easily could have been checked and disproven through a non-invasive search. After I.B. complained to her mother about what happened, Woodard denied having performed a search at all, and continued to lie about that fact for several weeks, until finally admitting what she had done.  I.B. suffered severe and ongoing emotional trauma as a result of being strip-searched and photogra...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - Category: American Health Authors: Source Type: blogs