ACLU Defends Detroit Students' Fourth Amendment Rights

By John C. Nolan

On their 1982 album, Combat Rock, The Clash sang, “You have the right to free speech as long as you're not dumb enough to actually try it.” In Detroit, Michigan, the same could be said of high school students and their Fourth Amendment rights. On June 10, 2004, lawyers from the American Civil Liberties Union filed a complaint on behalf of three students, alleging that their Fourth Amendment rights had been violated.

According to the complaint, on Wednesday, February 18, 2004, the defendants, named as the City of Detroit, Detroit Public Schools, Unknown Detroit Police Officers and Unknown Detroit Public School Security Officers, “conducted a mass, indiscriminate, unconstitutional search and seizure known as a ‘sweep’ of the entire student body of Detroit’s Mumford High School, including the three minor plaintiffs.” The complaint notes that “the sweep was conducted pursuant to an established custom, policy, or practice of defendant Detroit Public Schools to periodically conduct such sweeps without notice,” and that students “who questioned these illegal searches were threatened with arrest or corporal violence.”

When asked to comment about this case, Michael J. Steinberg, an attorney with the ACLU, responded that the case was currently “in discovery,” meaning that the involved parties are being deposed and that he and the other attorneys are investigating the policy of the Detroit Public Schools that is mentioned in the complaint. Steinberg also hinted that such cases are becoming more common. “Since Columbine,” he remarked, “public schools have shown more willingness to violate the rights of students.”

The plaintiffs in this case are seeking “declaratory, injunctive, and monetary relief.”