A federal appeals court has ruled that thousands of strip-searches of detainees at the San Francisco jail were illegal.

The decision applies to strip searches that were carried out from 2002 to 2004 under a policy that ended in January 2004 when a lower federal court declared the policy illegal.

The decision Friday by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals said that “blanket strip searches” — now that’s confusing — “of (newly arrested inmates) regardless of severity of charge and without reasonable suspicion is unconstitutional.” Is a “blanket strip search” one that’s conducted under a blanket?

The ruling pertains to 28,000 incidents that took place from April 2002 to January 2004. Twenty-eight thousand! That’s a lot.