Search and Seizure - UNREASONABLE SEARCHES

United States v. Booker, 728 F.3d 535 (6th Cir. 2013)

The defendant was arrested on charges that he possessed marijuana. The police became suspicious that he was hiding drugs in his rectum and brought him to a hospital. There, a doctor administered drugs that paralyzed the defendant for a few minutes, during which time a rectal examination was conducted that yielded crack cocaine. The Sixth Circuit held that this search shocked the conscience, just as the search in Rochin v. California 342 U.S. 165 (1942) and Winston v. Lee, 470 U.S. 753 (1985) did, and held that the evidence should have been suppressed. The doctor was acting as an agent of the police (he did not obtain consent to perform the medical procedure and did not give the defendant the option of simply using the toilet).