The Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals issued a decision en banc in Gilmore v. Georgia Department of Corrections, reversing a judgment of qualified immunity and allowing plaintiff Clarissa Gilmore’s claims to go to trial. The Legal Defense Fund (LDF), along with co-counsel Shania King, represented Ms. Gilmore, who endured an invasive and retaliatory strip search by correctional officers during her visit to a Georgia state prison.
In its decision, the Eleventh Circuit held that prison guards cannot strip search prison visitors without at least reasonable suspicion. The decision further explained defendants were not entitled to qualified immunity because their conduct had clearly violated the U.S. Constitution. Finally, the decision clarified that courts in the Eleventh Circuit could rely on case law from other circuits to help determine whether conduct clearly violated the Constitution and therefore was not protected by qualified immunity.
“Clarissa Gilmore’s unwavering fight has resulted in a long overdue, important victory that ensures that prison guards must respect the constitutional rights of prison visitors and cannot subject them to needless, humiliating searches. This decision rightfully recognizes that qualified immunity provides no protection to state officials who commit this kind of obvious constitutional violation,” said Chris Kemmitt, LDF Director of Litigation. “We are gratified that Ms. Gilmore will finally have the opportunity to secure justice at trial.”
“Clarissa Gilmore is one step closer to obtaining true justice,” said attorney Shania King. “This decision deals a striking blow to qualified immunity and brings us one step closer to accountability for officials who engage in reprehensible misconduct. We are gratified that Ms. Gilmore will be allowed to proceed to trial to prove that these officials violated her rights.”
In August 2024, an Eleventh Circuit panel found that although nine circuit courts had ruled that strip-searching a person without reasonable suspicion was unlawful, two previous Eleventh Circuit decisions — Thomas v. Roberts and Marsh v. Butler County — required it to ignore the unanimous consensus of the nine circuits and affirm the grant of qualified immunity in Ms. Gilmore’s case. But the entire Eleventh Circuit then voted to vacate the panel decision and hear the case en banc.
LDF argued that the defendants should not be protected by qualified immunity because every reasonable prison official should have known that they could not strip search a prison visitor without reasonable suspicion to believe that the visitor possessed contraband.
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Founded in 1940, the Legal Defense Fund (LDF) is the nation’s first civil rights law organization. LDF’s Thurgood Marshall Institute is a multi-disciplinary and collaborative hub within LDF that launches targeted campaigns and undertakes innovative research to shape the civil rights narrative. In media attributions, please refer to us as the Legal Defense Fund or LDF. Please note that LDF has been completely separate from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) since 1957—although LDF was originally founded by the NAACP and shares its commitment to equal rights.
