Visual Body Cavity Searches Get New Test From Second Circuit

Police officers must have a specific, articulable suspicion a suspect is hiding contraband in his person before he may be subject to a visual body cavity search incident to his arrest, the Second Circuit said Dec. 12.

The rule holds true regardless of whether the defendant was arrested for a felony or misdemeanor, the opinion by Judge Rosemary S. Pooler said.

The New York state troopers involved in the search of Maxmillian Sloley nevertheless argued they were entitled to qualified immunity from his civil rights suit. When the search was conducted, the Second Circuit hadn’t held that a visual body ...