No. 18-1172

Tynisa Williams v. City of Cleveland, Ohio

Lower Court: Sixth Circuit
Docketed: 2019-03-11
Status: Denied
Type: Paid
Tags: civil-rights delousing detainee-rights due-process fourth-amendment penological-interests prison-policy privacy-rights reasonable-alternatives reasonable-search strip-search
Key Terms:
FourthAmendment Privacy
Latest Conference: 2019-05-09
Question Presented (AI Summary)

Whether the physical delousing and group strip searches of detainees entering the Cleveland Workhouse were constitutional under the Fourth Amendment, given reasonable alternatives

Question Presented (OCR Extract)

QUESTIONS PRESENTED In a prior decision of this Court, blanket strip and visual cavity searches of detainees entering the general population of a local jail were held to be reasonable under the Fourth Amendment. See Florence v. Board of Chosen Freeholders, 556 U.S. 318 (2012). Regardless, this Court’s ruling specifically exempted searches involving “the touching of detainees,” and those involving “intentional humiliation and other abusive practices.” Id., at 339. The Court also continues to require a balancing of the privacy rights of detainees with the need for the strip searches in question, and that prison policies be reasonably related to penological interests. See Turner v. Safley, 483 US. 78, 84-85 (1987). The questions presented are: Whether the court below erroneously held that the physical delousing of all detainees entering the Cleveland Workhouse, whereby delousing solution was sprayed onto the genitals and anus of naked pre-trial detainees with a pressurized spray canister, was constitutional under the Fourth Amendment given reasonable de minimis alternatives to this procedure, including self-application of the solution. Whether the court below erroneously held that routine group strip searches and physical delousing of all detainees entering the Cleveland Workhouse, whereby detainees were strip searched and deloused in groups of three, were constitutional under the Fourth Amendment given reasonable de minimis alternatives to this procedure, including the utilization of privacy partitions recommended by state regulators.

Docket Entries

2019-05-13
Petition DENIED.
2019-04-23
DISTRIBUTED for Conference of 5/9/2019.
2019-04-09
Brief of respondent City of Cleveland, Ohio in opposition filed.
2019-03-07
Petition for a writ of certiorari filed. (Response due April 10, 2019)

Attorneys

City of Cleveland
Stephen William FunkRoetzel & Andress, Respondent
Stephen William FunkRoetzel & Andress, Respondent
Tynisa Williams
Elmer Robert Keach IIILaw Offices of Elmer Robert Keach, III PC, Petitioner
Elmer Robert Keach IIILaw Offices of Elmer Robert Keach, III PC, Petitioner