United States Eleventh Circuit

In a Bivens action involving claims that then-pregnant plaintiff was detained and searched at an airport based on a suspicion that she was smuggling drugs internally, judgment for defendants is affirmed where: 1) pursuant to the long-standing right of the sovereign to protect its territorial integrity, preliminary searches and seizures are per se reasonable simply by virtue of the fact that they occur at the border; 2) defendants acted reasonably in detaining plaintiff and taking her to a hospital for further, more intrusive, examinations; and 3) state law tort claims were barred under the Supremacy Clause.

Appellate Information

• Decided 07/15/2009
• Published 07/15/2009

Judges

• TJOFLAT, Circuit Judge:, Before TJOFLAT, CARNES and HILL, Circuit Judges.

Court

• United States Eleventh Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• Barbara Ann Heyer, Heyer & Associates, P.A., Ft. Lauderdale, FL, for Plaintiffs-Appellants.


• For Appellees:
  
• Tesal Luthy Miller, Barbara L. Herwig, U.S. Dept. of Justice, App. Staff, Civ. Div., Washington, DC, James J. Allen, Miami, FL, for Defendants-Appellees.