Mabry v. Lee County

Juvenile Law Center filed an amicus brief in the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit on behalf of T.M., a 12-year-old girl subjected to a suspicionless body cavity strip search while being detained for a minor offense. We argued that under existing Fourth Amendment jurisprudence, suspicionless body cavity searches of children detained for minor offenses are unconstitutional and that children are entitled to special constitutional protections based on their unique status as children which has been consistently recognized by the U.S. Supreme Court. Furthermore, we argued that the district court erred in extending the Supreme Court’s holding in Florence v. Board of Chosen Freeholders, 132 S. Ct. 1510 (2012), which dealt with strip searches of adults in jails, to cover juvenile detainees.

The Fifth Circuit affirmed the lower court, holding that Florence applies to juvenile detainees, and establishing that the Plaintiff must prove that the facility’s response to security risks is exaggerated.  The Court held that standard was not met. Interestingly, however, the Court called into question the County’s defense and the juvenile detention center’s policies and procedures, stating “the County could not point to even one instance in which contraband was found via the strip and cavity search that could not have been found through use of the metal detecting wand and pat-down. Furthermore, the County has given no explanation for the Center’s blanket policy of placing all incoming juvenile pretrial detainees into its general population as a default matter, absent some special indication from the Youth Court to the contrary. Indeed, at no point in its brief does the County point to any evidence whatsoever legitimating any components of the Center’s intake procedures, including the search policy.”