George v. Edholm (Ninth Circuit)

In this Fourth Amendment case, Clifford George was subjected to a strip search, during which officers saw what they believed to be George hiding contraband in his rectum. The officers took George to a nearby hospital, where they directed an emergency department doctor to remove the suspected contraband from George’s rectum. George did not consent to medical treatment, so the doctor, with the officer’s assistance, placed George under forced general anesthesia and removed the contraband from George’s rectum using a surgical instrument.

George later filed a pro se Section 1983 suit alleging violations of his Fourth and Fourteenth Amendment rights. After the district court granted summary judgment to the defendants, we were appointed to handle the appeal. The Ninth Circuit ultimately reversed the grant of summary judgment to the defendants, holding that George had entered evidence sufficient for a jury to find that his clearly established Fourth Amendment rights have been violated.