Female port protesters sue over strip searches

Three women who were arrested during anti-Iraq War protests at the Port of Olympia in November 2007 have sued the city of Olympia, alleging they were told to disrobe to their underwear during searches at the city jail, exposing their breasts to men. The federal civil-rights lawsuit alleges that on Nov. 13, 2007, police and corrections officers at the jail "ordered several women to take off dresses and shirts, in direct violation of jail policy, and made them strip down to an underwear layer that completely exposed and revealed their breasts." The suit alleges that the women were "exposed and vulnerable to male prisoners and jail and police personnel alike." The Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution protects citizens from "unreasonable searches and seizures." Washington state law holds that no one may be strip-searched without a warrant unless "there is a reasonable suspicion to believe that a strip search is necessary to discover weapons, criminal evidence, contraband, or other thing concealed on the body of the person to be searched."