The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the blanket search of all inmates entering general population at the San Francisco County jails. In Bull v. San Francisco the court reversed a twenty-five year policy and allowed the Sheriff’s Department to strip search all inmates entering general population without an individualized suspicion or probable cause.

The District Court denied the sheriff’s request for partial immunity finding that the searches violated the Fourth Amendment and that the law was clear at the time of the searches. While stating that inmates do not give up all of their Fourth Amendment rights when they are incarcerated, the court found that inmate’s rights must be subject to the administrative and security needs of the institution.

However, the Ninth Circuit reversed alleging that Supreme Court precedent allowed the searches and required the courts to give deference to law enforcement officers in the area of inmate and deputy safety. Considering the problems that the San Francisco jails had with contraband entering the jail the court determined that the search policy was not unreasonable and therefore it did not violate the Fourth Amendment.

The dissent points out that the searches are not reasonable. Among the defendants challenging the searches is one who is charged with pour fake blood during a demonstration and another who is charged with writing bad checks. Furthermore only a small percentage of those who enter the jail bring contraband with them. The long history of litigation in the Ninth Circuits and most of the other circuits has upheld the need fior an individualized evaluation and not the blanket acceptance of strip searches accepted by the majority opinion.