Stepping back, there’s the question of what the law ought to be. And it seems to me that there’s a choice before Americans. Do they want to be the sort of society where armed agents of the state occasionally probe the rectums or vaginas of innocents in search of drugs, or the sort of society where actual drug dealers can, with forethought, occasionally conceal a tiny amount of illegal narcotics from police officers?

The right choice in a civilized society seems clear to me.

Yet it is not the choice that Americans have made. I am constantly astonished that a nation of people who are too libertarian for national ID cards or strict gun control permit a status quo in which agents of the state routinely penetrate the most private of parts.

And it happens all the time!

The logical end of the state’s position? If I described it, you wouldn’t believe me, so I’ll conclude with some other cases that illustrate what citizens of this country allow to happen.