ME: Psych ward strip search without justification stated a claim

Plaintiff was ordered strip searched in a psych unit, allegedly without any justification that there were drugs on her. When she refused, two male security guards were called to do it. The law was clearly established at the time so no qualified immunity. Clifford v. MaineGeneral Med. Ctr., 2014 ME 60, 2014 Me. LEXIS 65 (April 22, 2014):

[¶68] Viewing the record in the light most favorable to Clifford, Kemmerer violated Clifford’s constitutional right against unreasonable searches when, in violation of hospital policy requiring documentation of cause to believe she possessed prohibited items on her person, he directed her to remove her clothes and submit to a body search for contraband, and then, in further violation of hospital policy, called two male security guards to the examining room to enforce that directive after Clifford refused to comply. At the time of the search, there was no evidence to support a belief that Clifford carried contraband, there were no exigent circumstances that demanded that she be searched at all, much less in the presence of three men, and although Clifford had, under duress, consented to medical treatment, she was not legally committed under either the voluntary, see 34-B M.R.S. §§ 3831, 3832 (2007), or involuntary commitment procedures. Consequently, the search was devoid of any legitimate governmental justification and was not based on any reasonable suspicion that Clifford carried contraband, as required by the law and the hospital’s own body search policies. See generally Safford Unified Sch. Dist. No. 1 v. Redding, 557 U.S. 364, 370-71 (2009).