Posted on 08/05/2005 6:05:42 AM PDT by OESY
So the New York Civil Liberties Union has decided to sue the NYPD on the grounds that subway bag searches are unconstitutional. At first glance, there doesn't seem anything surprising or wrong about such a choice. After all, isn't that what civil-liberties unions are supposed to do?
Well, yes, except nobody — even civil-liberties unions — is supposed to bring frivolous and harassing lawsuits that clog up the time and energy of those being sued.
There is no way the NYCLU can win this suit, because the Supreme Court has already held, in pretty definitive terms, that these sorts of bag searches are entirely legitimate under the terms of the Fourth Amendment — the very amendment that forbids "unreasonable searches and seizures."
Case in point: A sentence in a decision called Indianapolis v. Edmond, decided in 2000. Well before 9/11, Justice Sandra Day O'Connor explicitly stated that "the Fourth Amendment would almost certainly permit an appropriately tailored roadblock set up to thwart an imminent terrorist attack."
What else is a random bag search inside a New York City subway station but an "appropriately tailored roadblock" for a pedestrian using mass transit?...
Now, Assemblyman Dov Hikind and others would argue that, in fact, these random bag searches do not advance the interest of preventing a terrorist attack. They think the fact that those whose bags are checked are chosen at random rather than by ethnic profiling makes these searches pointless....
In a 1987 decision called Griffin vs. Wisconsin, the Court noted that there are "special needs" circumstances that allow the relaxation of an absolute prohibition against police searches and seizures without specific warrants. In this case, the [Supreme] Court [held there] is a 'special need' of the State that may justify departures from the usual warrant and probable-cause requirements."...
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
I understand what you're sayig, but its a waste of time and money. Meanwhile, hundreds of millions of dollars in funds that were supposed to be used on top secret "sniffing machines" for the NYC mass transit system remain unspent because the local politicians don't want to follow US Defense Department procurement requirements as a condition for receiving the money. (Translation: The local political whores don't want to follow Defense Department procurement requirements because they won't be able to hand the money out to their friends, relatives, and campaign contributers.)
Well I feel sorry for the people that live in New York with those two lousy senators...neither one has a brain between them...and that stupid Rangel...what a joke....
Course I live in PA. so we don't have it much better....
We certainly have to look at who we put in office, and if they don't deliver then we should vote them out the next election, maybe then, and only then will people get the idea WE THE PEOPLE RUN THE GOVERNMENT; NOT CLINTON, SHUMER, KENNEDY, KERRY, BOXER, POLSKI, REID, ETC
In thos particular case, we also need to blame RINO Pataki and RINO Bruno, who have packed the MTA and Port Authority with hacks and cronies.
Of course, if these searches are unconstitional, I wonder how we got saddled with seatbelt laws, speed limits, any form of gun registration, etc.
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