The Doe v. Groody lawsuit concerned a strip-search of a 10 year old girl and her mother despite the fact that neither were criminal suspects nor named in any search warrant. In applying for a search warrent, they requested the right to search whoever was in the house and were refused that request.
Majority opinion
The majority opinion for the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit found the search unconstitutional.
The majority opinion states in its second paragraph:
- [U]nder any reasonable reading, the warrent in this case did not authorize the search of the mother and daughter, and that the search was not otherwise justified. Accordingly, we will affirm the District Court's determination that the officers are not entitled to qualified immunity.
Alito's dissenting opinion
Judge Samuel Alito wrote a dissenting opinion saying that police officers did not violate the Constitution when they strip-searched the mother and her ten-year-old daughter.
Judge Michael Chertoff’s majority opinion asserted that Judge Alito’s position would effectively nullify the Fourth Amendment’s warrant requirement and “transform the judicial officer into little more than the cliché rubber stamp.”