Opinion ID: 429227
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Equal Protection Ground.

Text: 33 The policy of the City of Chicago under which female arrestees were routinely subjected to strip searches while similarly situated males were not established a significant disparity in treatment based on gender. Accordingly, the policy is subject to scrutiny under the equal protection clause of the fourteenth amendment, which requires that the party seeking to uphold a policy that expressly discriminates on the basis of gender must carry the burden of showing an exceedingly persuasive justification for the differing treatment. Mississippi University for Women v. Hogan, --- U.S. ----, 102 S.Ct. 3331, 3336, 73 L.Ed.2d 1090 (1982). The burden is met only by showing at least that the classification serves 'important governmental objectives and that the discriminatory means employed' are 'substantially related to the achievement of those objectives.'  Id. (quoting Wengler v. Druggists Mutual Insurance Co., 446 U.S. 142, 150, 100 S.Ct. 1540, 1545, 64 L.Ed.2d 107 (1980)); Personnel Administration of Massachusetts v. Feeny, 442 U.S. 256, 273, 99 S.Ct. 2282, 2293, 60 L.Ed.2d 870 (1979). For the reasons that follow, we believe the City has failed to carry its burden. 34 The City argues initially that the strip searches conducted on women were no more intrusive than the thorough hand search used on men and that both sexes were therefore subjected to equal treatment. This assertion runs contrary to common experience. As we have already observed, the visual cavity searches conducted by the City are one of the more humiliating invasions of privacy imaginable, and we find those searches to be substantially more intrusive than the thorough hand searches. 35 The City also argues that the strip searches of women detainees served the important governmental interest of ensuring the integrity and safety of the City lockups. It maintains that the decision to search men and women differently was not arbitrary but based on the documented ability of women arrestees to secrete weapons and contraband in the vaginal cavity and the inability to discover such items by a thorough hand search. The City introduced several affidavits of security personnel and one statistical survey in an attempt to show that weapons and contraband can be and have been concealed in the vagina. Although the affidavits lacked specificity, the district court in Jane Does concluded that, for the purpose of summary judgment, the documents demonstrated that weapons can be concealed on or within the body cavities of females. The court also concluded, however, that the evidence also showed that weapons can be secreted on or within the bodies of males. It thus found that the policy of the City under which only the body cavities of female, but not male, arrestees were visually inspected violated the women's rights to equal protection. 36 The problem with the City's position, of course, is that it has failed to show why the presence of the vaginal cavity made it necessary to strip search only women to achieve its objective of ensuring the security of the City lockups and unnecessary to search the body cavities of males, which can be and occasionally are used to conceal weapons or contraband. 10 The equal protection clause, of course, does not proscribe gender as a basis for classification when the situations of men and women are in fact different. Michael M. v. Superior Court of Sonoma County, 450 U.S. 464, 101 S.Ct. 1200, 67 L.Ed.2d 437 (1981). Here, however, the City has failed to show that men and women minor offenders are not similarly situated. Nowhere has the City demonstrated that the incidence of items found in the vaginal cavities of women was so much greater than that associated with items secreted in the anal cavities of men to justify the grossly disparate search treatment. Because the City has offered no comparative data to suggest that women arrested for minor offenses conceal items in their vaginas to such a degree as to justify strip searching only women and not men arrested for similar offenses, it cannot show a substantial relation between the disparity and an important state purpose. Lehr v. Robertson, --- U.S. ----, 103 S.Ct. 2985, 2996, 77 L.Ed.2d 614 (1983). Under these circumstances, we must agree with the district court in Jane Does that the City has not met its burden of demonstrating that the difference in gender alone justified the disparate search treatment accorded men and women. We therefore affirm the decisions below on the additional ground that the strip search policy instituted by the City violated the equal protection clause of the fourteenth amendment.III. JURY AWARDS 37 The City argues that the jury awards in each of the cases before us are excessive and that we should order remittiturs. The awards for plaintiffs-appellees Mary Beth G. and Sharon N. were $25,000 each, while plaintiff-appellee Mary Ann Tikalsky received $30,000. The remaining plaintiff-appellee, Hinda Hoffman, received an award of $60,000. In determining whether an award is excessive, we are to accord substantial deference to the decision of the jury and will not disturb an award unless we are convinced that it is monstrously excessive or so large as to shock the conscience of the court. Huff v. White Motor Corp., 609 F.2d 286, 296 (7th Cir.1979); Galard v. Johnson, 504 F.2d 1198, 1199 (7th Cir.1974). 38 After having carefully appraised the evidence bearing on damages, we believe that the evidence submitted by each of the plaintiffs-appellees is sufficient to support the awards. The testimony offered by each woman regarding emotional and mental distress resulting from the searches was adequately corroborated by persons who knew the women best. The testimony revealed, inter alia, instances of shock, panic, depression, shame, rage, humiliation, and nightmares, with lasting effects on each woman's life. Under these circumstances, we are not in a position to second guess the juries' findings on the actual measurement of damages. Whitley v. Seibel, 676 F.2d 245 (7th Cir.1982). 39 We recognize that while three of the awards are generally consistent with one another, the award of $60,000 to plaintiff-appellee Hinda Hoffman is at least twice as great as the others. In the past, we have sometimes reduced damage awards when they have been out of line with a clear trend of awards at lesser amounts. See, e.g., Phillips v. Hunter Trails Community Association, 685 F.2d 184 (7th Cir.1982) (housing discrimination award of $25,000 made by trial judge reduced to $10,000 in part because original award was more than twice as much as received by any other victim of housing discrimination for intangible injuries in litigation over a 14 year period). Here, the award is greater than most other awards given by the juries for damages in similar strip search cases involving the City of Chicago so as to be out of step with nascent trends, although at least one award has gone nearly as high. 11 One explanation for the higher award may be that plaintiff-appellee Hoffman alleged aggravating circumstances associated with the strip search that the jury was free to find as having been proximately caused by the policy of the City and therefore compensable against it. Plaintiff-appellee Hoffman testified that two male police officers were within view when she was strip searched, and that a group of prostitutes jeered at her as the search was conducted. A jury could reasonably infer that the magnitude of plaintiff-appellee Hoffman's intangible injuries were significantly affected by these circumstances. Still, at least one of the other plaintiffs-appellees also believed she was being viewed by male police personnel while she was being searched, Brief of Plaintiff-Appellee Mary Beth G. at 4, and the manifestations of plaintiff-appellee Hoffman's psychic and emotional injuries do not appear to us to be significantly different from those of the other plaintiffs-appellees; the record reveals that each woman described the emotional and psychic effect of the search in similar language, each woman still thinks about the strip search, and each woman's attitudes and relationships with others have been colored by the experience. In addition, some elements of plaintiff-appellee Hoffman's claimed damages appear at least tenuous when measured against the usual damage standard of causation and foreseeability. For example, her own evidence discloses that part of her distress resulted from her dissatisfaction with the way her brother, an attorney, responded to her situation and handled her traffic violation case; despite her insistence that her brother tell the traffic judge about her strip search, her brother thought it best not to mention the incident. Even her breakup with her boyfriend six months after the strip search was attributed to the search, although her boyfriend testified that it was hard from him to say exactly what caused the breakup. 40 Despite this not uncommon attempt to load every injury possible onto the back of the wrong in an effort to increase the damage award, there nonetheless remains in this case, considering the nature of the constitutional wrong suffered, sufficient evidence of humiliation and mental distress to support the jury's damage award. Whatever misgivings we may have about the size of the award to plaintiff-appellee Hoffman must give way to our recognition of the function of the jury as the primary finder of fact. The jury is the collective conscience of the community, and its assessment of damages must be given particular weight when intangible injuries are involved. Although a jury's perceptions may vary from our own, we will not disturb its assessment of compensatory damages unless in our judgment it can aptly be described as 'grossly excessive' or 'monstrous' or with similar perjorative adjectival terms. Huff, 609 F.2d at 297. Thus, although the amount awarded to plaintiff-appellee Hoffman is significantly greater than the amount awarded to the other plaintiffs-appellees, it is not so grossly excessive under these particular circumstances as to require a reduction. Accordingly, we affirm the amount of the verdicts in each of these cases.