Justice Ginsberg was wrong after all

Back in May I wrote about how Justice Ginsberg wasn't necessarily stupid, she was just a liberal.

She claimed that the SCOTUS needed another women, citing an example of a 13 year old who was strip searched in school, saying the male majority couldn't sympathize with being a 13 year old girl. Any one can sympathize with the girl, but not everyone can empathize with her, not having been teenage girls who were strip searched.

I said then, and still maintain, empathy and sympathy are great to have, but are irrelevant to performing one's job on the SCOTUS. The limited constitutional powers reserved the Supreme Court is to determine whether statutes, laws and lower court rulings were made consistent with the constitution. A Supreme Court justice ideally should make all decisions without emotion, passion, or prejudice and use the constitution as the final arbiter of right and wrong. Because for good or bad, that is the constitutional power granted the court.

Of course since 1805 the SCOTUS has been making law instead of simply determining it's constitutionality... but that is irrelevant. Justice Ginsberg is a liberal, judicial activist who sees her role as determining law and policy.

Justice Ginsberg was also proven wrong, there is no need for another female justice (based upon her limit reasoning) as the court ruled 8 -1 that the strip search of a 13 year old girl by school officials was unconstitutional.

You see there was no need for the other (male) justices to know what it is like for a 13 year old girl to be strip searched at that "funny age". They understood that school officials on an unsubstantiated search for drugs do not have the right to strip search their charges, regardless of gender or age.

And that is what is important. This case was not about the age or gender of the person in question, it was about the constitutionality of a school authority to mandate a student disrobe while searching for drugs. The ability to empathize with the victim was not important, or even relevant.

As for the dissenting justice I think he really missed the point.

Had the school believed this girl had drugs, even if it was prescription strength Advil, the proper response as part of a zero tolerance policy would have been to call the girl's parents to come get her or call the police.

School officials are not law enforcement officials. If a student is suspected of a crime they should be treated as suspected criminals.