You heard us correctly: the Supreme Court, and especially Justice Kennedy (Mr. “People detained for minor offenses can turn out to be the most devious and dangerous criminals”), ruled by a 5-to-4 vote yesterday that the Fourth Amendment’s prohibition of unreasonable searches did not forbid strip searching. Strip searching: close visual inspection while undressed.

Our new favorite Justice, Justice Stephen G. Breyer, wrote for the four dissenters that strip-searches are “a serious affront to human dignity and to individual privacy.”

We don’t have enough legal context to criticize this on more than a superficial level, but speaking superficially? Oh my. I think it’s now it’s both illegal to be publicly nude by choice and illegal to be publicly clothed if it’s not the police officer’s choice.

[via the New York Times]