In May, 2017, plaintiff Sharon Lynn Brown was arrested for petty theft (shoplifting) and taken to jail in Polk County, Wisconsin.  The day after her arrest, two inmates ratted her off, telling jail staff that plaintiff was hiding drugs in her body.  The Polk County jail had a written policy at the time permitting officials to have medical personnel perform “an inspection and penetration of the anal or vaginal cavity . . . by means of an instrument, apparatus, or object, or in any other manner” whenever they had “reasonable grounds” to believe a detainee was concealing “weapons, contraband, or evidence,” or otherwise “believe[d] that the safety and security of the jail would benefit” from such a search.  Based upon this information, and without seeking any corroboration or conducting any further investigation, correctional officer Steven Hilleshiem sought permission from the jail administrator, Wes Revels, to take plaintiff to a doctor for a body cavity search.  With Revels’ approval, plaintiff was therefore transported to a local hospital where a male doctor performed an ultrasound.  This procedure, however, failed to reveal any foreign objects. So the doctor took it a step further and inserted a speculum into her vagina, spread open the vaginal walls, and shined his headlamp inside. He did the same to her anus. Still not finding any contraband, plaintiff was simply returned to jail.  Plaintiff later sued in federal court, alleging a violation of her Fourth Amendment right to be free from unreasonable searches, arguing that such a search requires full probable cause and a search warrant.  In her lawsuit, plaintiff alleged that after the doctor removed the speculum from her anus, she “immediately started crying. I couldn’t stop. I cried myself to sleep. I cried all the way back to the jail. I cried the whole time I was getting dressed.” When she returned to the jail, she “asked to stay in the holding cell because [she] couldn’t quit crying.”  She further alleged that she suffered continued anxiety and depression, interfering with her sleep at night, and experiencing flashbacks.  She testified that he feared leaving her home because she was terrified that the police would pull her over and send her back to jail.  Nearly two years later, plaintiff was still afraid of being alone in a room with a man; even her own brother.  The federal district (trial) court granted the civil defendants’ motion for summary judgment, dismissing the lawsuit; a decision that was upheld by the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeal.  In so holding the Seventh Circuit also ruled that such a “penetrative cavity search of a pretrial detainee requires only (a) reasonable suspicion,” specifically ruling that full probable cause was not required.  (See Brown v. Polk County (7th Cir. July 13, 2020) 965 F.3rd 534.)  Plaintiff appealed.