NYRA, along with three other organizations, has submitted an amicus curiae, or friend of the court, brief to the United States Supreme Court in the case of Stafford v. Redding. Savana Redding, a 13-year-old middle school student, was strip searched by school administrators in 2003 because they suspected her of possessing ibuprofen, solely based upon the uncorroborated testimony of one other student. 
NYRA collaborated with three other organizations, the Urban Justice Center, Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund and Advocates for Children of New York, to prepare the brief. The brief argues, in part, that the common law tradition, and more recent Fourth Amendment jurisprudence since the 1985 landmark Supreme Court decision in New Jersey v. T.L.O., restricts teacher and administrator conduct, including searches and discipline, to that which is reasonable under the circumstances, and that, for a variety of reasons, the school’s strip search of Ms. Redding was unreasonable, and therefore unconstitutional. The Supreme Court heard oral arguments in the case on April 21. Download the amicus curiae brief here.
