I agree, which makes it really hard to see why he would vote for the state in what seems like such a clear cut case. They strip searched her looking for Advil!! If I were on the court, not only would they lose this case, but for the first time in history, SCOTUS would be handing down directly from their bench long terms in a FPMITAP!
Up thread I was having a exchange with a poster who said that despite his knee jerk reaction, he found the conservative justices pro-govt, and the liberals pro-individual. I think liberals are just statist on different (and more) issues and gave some examples, but I do grant that the conservatives hardly vote like principled Constitutional scholars. But Thomas?? He's the one I generally hold above any criticism at all. I almost said in that exchange that what we need are eight more Thomases.
Most people are going to think strip searching is the nuclear option when it comes to the powers of a school district, to be employed under only the most extreme and unquestionable justification. They hear this and they'll probably think something like "Well, strip searching is pretty severe even for drugs, but maybe her family are known drug dealers or something". The newscast gave no hint that they were stripping her naked to verify an uncorroborated tip that she was doing something that WASN'T EVEN ILLEGAL! Talk about sham reporting.