Police Station Strip Searches Legal in the United States?

A recent question posed from an anonymous visitor:  "Doesn't everyone think that the only reason that the supreme court said it was OK for anyone arrested and taken to a police station in the United States to be strip-searched is so they can abuse the occupy people?!?"

     Though I'd love to agree with you, I would have to lean towards a more yes and no. The Supreme Court has had a relatively remarkable history of being surprisingly neutral in many cases throughout it's history. Though the historical stain caused by their (some might say) illegal and unconstitutional divergence from the election process by usurping the American peoples' power to choose the president by (s)electing GW Bush as the president of the United States themselves in the year 2000 is a dirty and deeply dug-in one; and perhaps signaled a change for the worse that we may never see shift back. As much as many feel that the Court shifts coyly left and right ala politics as usual between the two-party system that's taken over US government based on which judges happen to be registered Democrats or Republicans, they often come to uncannily fair and unbiased decisions on occasion.
      One could also argue that with the current threat of terrorism on US soil so glaringly eminent due to at least three overtly illegal invasions and deadly wars in foreign countries over the last ten years, that the need to be allowed to strip search anyone seen caught or suspected of any sort of trouble making is high right now, and maybe even downright necessary. This of course begs the question "just who started all this? Regarding the continuously increasing questionable event they refer to as 9/11. But regardless of who did what or how or when on that fateful day, the United States government's reaction(s) to it have caused more ammunition or "righteous just cause" for terror attacks against the US, in retaliation for these acts, than possibly any country in the history of human civilization. Thus "possible future terrorist attacks on US soil" seem more than just questionable, and rather more like downright definite. More a question of when rather than "possible?".
      If one views things with this in mind, from a more global perspective, historically looking forward in order to look back in time to the present day or near future, the United States seems to be acting quite lax in its stated attempt at "Homeland Security". Hence strip searches don't seem like that big of a sacrifice to make on all our parts if it might possibly prevent major damage or harm to a large majority of us or even a few. Granted, someone clearly American out protesting for the Occupy Movement shouldn't necessarily be treated like a suspected terrorist, no one "should" be. Except for the fact that so many "normal looking white Americans" have 'gone postal' over the last ten years shooting up schools and various other public places for no apparent reason and with no warning whatsoever.

       Unfortunately what the US government has created, whether deliberately or not, is a world gone mad environment and mentality in America where even the sweetest old lady carrying a baby and smelling like fresh apple pie may turn out to be a crazy revenge seeking turncoat who's lost her marbles and wants to blow some people up. Strip searches? Sheesh. We should be doing a lot more than that. And I say that personally coming from an extremely liberal if not radical view of life on earth life liberty and the pursuit of happiness. But reality here is, sadly, what it is. It just isn't the quaint 1950s America anymore.
      We've got a melting pot of every race ethnicity age color and religion in America, all of whom call themselves "American". Tens of millions of them not even really American at all (which is another issue entirely but pushes the dire need for more heightened security point even further). Whether it's an American gone mad for some unknown reason (which we see way too frequently now), or a non-American seeking revenge who's only (legally or illegally) visiting or pretending to be American, it's clear that it's become impossible to tell what a potential "terrorist" looks like in the United States of America. Indeed we've got internal terrorist attacks being perpetrated here now on a near monthly basis by regular old baseball loving fellow Americans on each other. And all these daily chest pounding threats of war and invading even more countries everyday by our (s)elected leaders is just continuing to stoke the fires of anger rage and hostility against us all as a people and a nation.
      Yes, it's more than sad. But if we are serious about protecting ourselves and our loved ones and neighbors, then permitting strip searches at police stations is the least that we can do until we reshape this government of ours into a more decent, respectful and diplomatic one.