The Supreme Court's recent verdict in Safford v. Redding determined that the strip search of a 13-year-old student in Arizona by school officials violated her constitutional rights. Months ago, before oral arguments were heard in the case, Professor Raymond Brescia and a group of six Albany Law students filed an amicus curiae brief with the court, presenting their conclusion that the search was unconstitutional, which was ultimately validated by the court's decision.

Professor Brescia worked with Umair Khan '09, Rob Magee '09, Ben Loefke '10, Meredith Perry '10, Matthew Rozea '10, and Erika Winkler '10 for more than two months in preparing an argument in support of the student, who was strip searched by school officials based on the uncorroborated tip of a fellow student on suspicion of possessing 400mg of ibuprofen. The Albany Law School group surveyed the history of teacher-student relations and concluded that this particular search, viewed through either the reasonableness standard lens of the common law or under modern Fourth Amendment jurisprudence, was unconstitutional.

They submitted the completed brief on behalf of the Urban Justice Center, Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund, Advocates for Children of New York, and the National Youth Rights Association.

Before joining the faculty at Albany Law School, Professor Brescia was the Associate Director of the Urban Justice Center in New York City, where he coordinated legal representation for grassroots, community-based institutions in areas such as housing, economic justice, workers' rights, civil rights and environmental justice.

He also recently applied his expertise in an interview with Baltimore's public radio station WYPR 88.1, during which he talked about Baltimore suing Wells Fargo for foreclosing on homes largely in African-American neighborhoods.