On April 2, the Supreme Court turned our country into a police state. Against years of precedent, justices have ruled that anyone can now be strip-searched for any reason. There had already been cases of abuse, but now the door is open for widespread abuse across our whole country.

In the Albert Florence case, Justice Kennedy, who wrote for the majority, argued corrections officials “must have substantial discretion to devise reasonable solutions to the problems they face.” The only trouble is, this case points out exactly why this shouldn’t be allowed. The guy was arrested for a ticket. (As it turns out, it had been paid.) He was held for a week and strip-searched at two different jails, even though an unpaid fine isn’t a crime under New Jersey law.

This decision not only affects this case, but there were others being held up to wait for this decision, like the Maureen Rattray case in Iowa. The Gazette mentioned the case when Woodbury County went around to all their counties in Iowa to raise money to help fight the case.