A public school violated the privacy rights of an Arizona teenage girl who had to undress on suspicion she had ibuprofen pills, the U. S. Supreme Court ruled yesterday in its first decision on student strip searches. By an 8-1 vote, the justices upheld a ruling the school and its officials violated the U. S. constitutional right that protects against unreasonable search and seizure. The ruling by the nation's high court was a major defeat for school officials who had defended the strip search as necessary for student safety, school order and combating a growing drug problem. [continues 224 words]
A Report Finds One In 100 U.S. Adults Is In Custody, Highest Ratio In World WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- The United States incarcerates more people than any other country in the world and for the first time in the nation's history, more than one in every 100 American adults is confined in a prison or jail, according to a report released Thursday. The report by the Pew Center on the States said the American penal system held more than 2.3 million adults at the start of the year. [continues 291 words]
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court agreed on Monday to decide whether a law outlawing marijuana applies to medical use by two seriously ill California women whose doctors recommended cannabis for their pain. The high court said it would review a ruling that the Controlled Substances Act of 1970 cannot be applied constitutionally to the manufacture, possession and distribution without charge of marijuana for medical use. The ruling by a U.S. appeals court in San Francisco found the two women had demonstrated a strong likelihood of success on their claim that the federal law, as applied to them, is an unconstitutional use of Congress's power to regulate commerce among the states. [continues 345 words]
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court rejected on Monday an appeal by a South Carolina woman convicted of homicide and sentenced to 12 years in prison for causing her baby to be stillborn by using cocaine. The high court refused to review an appeal by Regina McKnight who challenged the constitutionality of the South Carolina law and argued her sentence amounted to unconstitutional cruel and unusual punishment. McKnight, a cocaine addict, gave birth in 1999 to a stillborn, 5-pound baby girl. Her pregnancy was estimated to have lasted between 34 and 37 weeks. McKnight's urine sample tested positive for cocaine, and an autopsy of the baby revealed cocaine metabolites. [continues 264 words]
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. prison and jail population increased to 2,033,331 people at the end of last year, holding one out of every 143 residents, according to a Justice Department report released on Sunday. The Bureau of Justice Statistics reported a 3.7 percent increase last year. The 2.6 percent rise in the prison population alone represented the largest jump in three years, equal to 700 inmates added every week during the year. Federal and state prisons generally hold people who have been convicted of felony crimes while local jails generally hold people awaiting trial or serving sentences for lesser misdemeanor offenses. [continues 306 words]
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court said on Monday it would decide whether a company violated a federal law protecting disabled Americans by refusing to rehire workers who have been fired for drug-related misconduct but have been rehabilitated. The justices agreed to hear an appeal by Raytheon Co.'s Hughes Missile Systems Co. of a ruling the defense contractor said confers "preferential rehire rights" under the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. A U.S. appeals court ruled the law's ban on discrimination against the disabled protected qualified applicants who have been denied a job because of former drug use. [continues 300 words]
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A divided U.S. Supreme Court ruled on Thursday that public middle and high schools can require drug tests for students in extracurricular activities such as choir or band without violating their privacy rights. The high court by a 5-4 vote upheld a program in Oklahoma that required students who want to take part in after-school activities to submit to random urinalysis. The tests, required without any suspicion of drug use, covered students in grades 7 to 12 who sign up for such activities as cheerleading, choir, band, the academic team and the Future Farmers of America club. [continues 375 words]
WASHINGTON - The U.S. Supreme Court ( news - web sites) upheld on Monday police searches of bus passengers and their luggage for drugs or weapons, rejecting the argument that such coercive tactics require that people be told of their rights. The justices, by a 6-3 vote, overturned a U.S. appeals court ruling that a bus search should be considered unconstitutionally coercive unless the police first warn passengers they have the right to refuse to cooperate. The appeals court held the consent given by two Greyhound bus passengers in 1999 in Tallahassee, Florida, was not sufficiently free of coercion and therefore amounted to an unconstitutional search and seizure. The high court's ruling was a major victory for the Bush administration. It argued the police should not be deprived of an essential crime-fighting tool needed to protect the nation's public transportation system after the Sept. 11 hijacked plane attacks on America. [continues 422 words]
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A unanimous U.S. Supreme Court ruled on Tuesday that public housing tenants can be evicted for any illegal drug activity by household members or guests, even if they did not know about it. In an opinion written by Chief Justice William Rehnquist, the high court reinstated the Department of Housing and Urban Development's ``One Strike and You're Out'' policy, which authorized public housing officials to evict innocent tenants. A U.S. appeals court in California barred enforcement of the policy, announced in 1996 by President Bill Clinton, on the grounds Congress never approved of such evictions when tenants were unaware of the drug activity. [continues 298 words]
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court ruled on Monday that thermal imaging to record the amount of heat emanating from a house, a police practice often used to help detect illegal drugs, represented a search covered by constitutional privacy protections. The court's 5-4 ruling was a setback for the U.S. Justice Department , which argued the use of a thermal imager by law enforcement officers to detect the heat emitted from a house was not a search and was not covered by the privacy protections. [continues 336 words]
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - With the federal government warning against creating "marijuana pharmacies," a number of Supreme Court justices expressed reservations on Wednesday about allowing marijuana to be given to patients who prove cannabis was medically necessary. In a major medical marijuana case involving a California cannabis club, the justices appeared sympathetic to the government's argument that patients may not get marijuana as a "medical necessity" because it has been classified as an illegal drug under federal law. The hour-long hearing marked a watershed for the U.S. medical marijuana movement, which has been mired in legal battles ever since California in 1996 approved the nation's first initiative legalizing medicinal use of the drug. [continues 435 words]
The U.S. Supreme Court said on Monday it would decide whether marijuana can be distributed for medicinal uses to seriously ill patients, a case pitting the federal government against a California cannabis club. The high court agreed to hear a U.S. Justice Department appeal of a ruling that would allow marijuana clubs to resume service for patients who can prove that cannabis was a medical necessity. The court's decision to hear the case marked the latest development in a conflict between federal narcotics laws, which prohibit distribution of marijuana, and a 1996 California voters' initiative known as Proposition 215. [continues 378 words]
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court (news - web sites) questioned Tuesday whether police may erect roadblocks to catch drug offenders without violating the privacy rights of innocent motorists, asking if pedestrian checkpoints might be next. The high court debated whether to extend its prior rulings, which allow roadblocks to detect drunk drivers and intercept illegal immigrants being smuggled across the U.S. border by car, to the routine use of drug checkpoints. A. Scott Chinn, representing Indianapolis, defended the constitutionality of the checkpoints, where police stop all vehicles in an effort to interrupt the flow of illegal drugs through the city. [continues 215 words]
WASHINGTON - The U.S. Supreme Court said on Monday that it would decide whether a hospital may perform drug tests on pregnant women and new mothers without a warrant under a policy that has resulted in arrests and jail. The high court agreed to hear an appeal by 10 women in their lawsuit alleging that a Charleston, South Carolina, hospital had violated their constitutional right to be free from unreasonable searches. According to the lawsuit, the women, who were seeking obstetrical care, ended up being arrested and jailed after testing positive for cocaine use under the hospital's policy. The policy later was abandoned after the litigation began. [continues 355 words]
WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court Tuesday rejected an appeal by state officials seeking to use evidence illegally obtained by the police in civil forfeiture cases. The high court refused to reconsider its 1965 ruling that the exclusionary rule -- which requires that evidence may not be used in a criminal trial if it stemmed from illegal police misconduct -- applies to civil forfeiture cases. Such cases typically involve individuals being required to forfeit or give up property or money that has been linked to illegal activities such as drug dealing. [continues 390 words]
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court Monday allowed mandatory drug tests for prospective teachers, rejecting the argument that the tests violate constitutional privacy rights. The high court without any comment or dissent let stand a ruling that allowed the Knox County Board of Education in Tennessee to require that teachers take drug tests because they hold ``safety-sensitive'' positions. The program had been challenged by a group representing professional employees in the school system on the grounds that it violated their constitutional right to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures of evidence. [continues 333 words]
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - White House drug czar Barry McCaffrey said Friday that Colombia faced an "emergency situation" with dramatically increased cocaine production, a major economic crisis and violence from guerrilla groups. McCaffrey, who visited Colombia last week, told a congressional subcommittee that President Clinton and other top U.S. officials shared his assessment about the huge problems the South American nation has to grapple with. "In Colombia, the melding of guerrilla movements, or in some cases paramilitary groups, and international drug trafficking organizations has created an unprecedented threat to the rule of law, democratic institutions and the very fabric of society," he said. [continues 386 words]
WASHINGTON - The U.S. Supreme Court Monday allowed prosecutors to continue offering leniency for testimony of cooperating witnesses, handing the Justice Department a victory in a closely watched criminal case. The high court rejected without any comment or dissent the argument that federal prosecutors commit bribery by granting leniency to a witness in exchange for testimony. The justices let stand a decision by the full 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver, which found the argument to be ``patently absurd.'' [continues 348 words]
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court returned Monday to the controversy over high school drug testing,letting stand a ruling that struck down for violating privacy rights mandated tests for all suspended students. The justices rejected without comment or dissent an appeal by a school district in Anderson, Indiana, after an appellate court struck down its drug-testing program for violating the constitutional right against unreasonable searches. The policy, adopted in 1997, requires that all students suspended from school for any reason for three days or more take a urine test to screen for drug or alcohol use before they may be readmitted. [continues 390 words]
THE United States, which already has the largest prison population in the world, may soon surpass Russia as the nation with the highest rate of incarceration, a report showed yesterday. The Sentencing Project, a nonprofit group that advocates sentencing reform, said the United States, with a record 1.8m inmates, was followed by China at an estimated 1.2m and Russia at one million. But the United States appeared likely to overtake Russia within the next year or so for the highest per capita rate of prisoners, Marc Mauer, the group's assistant director, predicted. [continues 247 words]
