Federal Appeals Court Upholds NYC's Random Searches
A federal appeals court has upheld the constitutionality of random bag searches by police in America's busiest subway system to prevent terrorism. The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday rejected a challenge to the searches by the New York Civil Liberties Union, saying that a lower court judge properly concluded that the program put in place in July 2005 was "reasonably effective." The searches began after deadly terrorist bombings in London's subway system. The NYCLU filed a lawsuit to stop them, saying they were an unprecedented intrusion on privacy and ineffective because they can be easily evaded.
Court upholds random NYC subway searches to prevent terrorism, Associated Press, August 11, 2006.
