Prisoner 4th Amendment Violation.

Byline: Derek Hawkins

7th Circuit Court of Appeals

Case Name: Delores Henry, et al., v. Melody Hulett, et al.,

Case No.: 16-4234

Officials: SYKES, Chief Judge, and FLAUM, EASTERBROOK, MANION, KANNE, ROVNER, WOOD, HAMILTON, BARRETT, BRENNAN, SCUDDER, and ST. EVE, Circuit Judges.

Focus: Prisoner 4th Amendment Violation

Plaintiffsa class of more than 200 current and former female inmates at Lincoln Correctional Centerbrought this action following mass strip searches conducted as part of a cadet training exercise in 2011. They contend that the circumstances of the searchesparticularly the intrusive and degrading manner in which they occurred violated their Fourth and Eighth Amendment rights.

Defendantsvarious prison officialsmoved for summary judgment before the district court, arguing that our circuit's prior decisions foreclosed Plaintiffs' Fourth Amendment claim. The district court agreed, concluding that, under Johnson v. Phelan, 69 F.3d 144 (7th Cir. 1995), and King v. McCarty, 781 F.3d 889 (7th Cir. 2015) (per curiam), convicted prisoners do not maintain a privacy interest during visual inspections of their bodies. A divided panel of our court affirmed that decision, following the same reasoning. We granted Plaintiffs'...