Searches of Bags in Subway Upheld

NEW YORK, Aug. 11 -- A federal appeals court said Friday that random bag searches on New York subways are constitutional, agreeing with a lower court that the police tactic is an effective and minimally invasive way to help protect a prime terrorism target.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit rejected a challenge to the searches by the New York Civil Liberties Union, saying U.S. District Judge Richard M. Berman properly concluded in December that the program was "reasonably effective."

Searches on the nation's largest subway system began after the deadly terrorist bombings in London's subways in July 2005. The NYCLU sued, arguing that they were an unprecedented intrusion on privacy that terrorists could easily evade.

The appeals court agreed with Berman that preventing a terrorist attack on the subway was important enough to subject subway riders to random searches.

The three-judge panel also noted that police have thwarted plans for New York subway attacks at least twice in the past nine years, including a bomb plot in 1997 in Brooklyn and a 2004 plot to bomb the Herald Square subway station in Manhattan. It was "unsurprising and undisputed that terrorists view it as a prime target," the court said in its opinion, written by Judge Chester J. Straub.

City officials noted that the ruling came a day after British officials announced they had stopped a plot to bomb several planes headed for the United States, underlining the importance of counterterrorism efforts.

"Common sense prevailed," Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said. "Once again, and at a fitting moment, the court upheld the constitutionality of the bag inspection program, one of our key strategies for deterring a subway attack."

Christopher Dunn, the NYCLU's associate legal director, said the group is considering an appeal. "Because this program authorizes police searches of all subway riders without any suspicion of wrongdoing, we continue to believe it raises fundamental constitutional questions," he said.

The appeals court said that expert testimony established that terrorists seek predictable and vulnerable targets and that the subway search program "generates uncertainty that frustrates that goal, which, in turn, deters an attack."

New York's subway system of 26 interconnected train lines carries 4.7 million passengers on a typical weekday.