Doe v. Groody

Doe v. Groody
Court	United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit
Date decided	October 10, 1990
Citation(s)	361 F.3d 232 (3rd Cir. 2004)
Judge(s) sitting	Samuel Alito, Thomas L. Ambro, & Michael Chertoff
Case opinions
Majority: Chertoff Dissent: Alito

The Doe v. Groody, 361 F.3d 232 (3d Cir. 2004) 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 warrant, officers 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 warrant 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. Alito stated in section I of his dissent that the affidavit accompanying the warrant "...seeks permission to search all occupants of the residence..." and argues, again in section I, that "The warrant indisputably incorporated the affidavit..."

Judge Michael Chertoff’s majority opinion asserted that 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.”

Media attention on the case and Alito's opinion grew when he was nominated by President George W. Bush to the Supreme Court in 2005. Opponents pointed to his opinion to support claims that Alito would try to overturn Fourth Amendment precedents if confirmed to the Court.

Sources

• PDF of full text of the legal document