NYPD Beats ACLU in Court Battle Over Anti-Terrorism Program

By Jim Kouri CPP

A US appeals court ruled in favor of New York City Police Department conducting random bag searches at subway station entrances throughout the city. The court said that it viewed the random searches 'as an adequate method to curb terrorism.'

'In light of the thwarted plots to bomb New York City's subway system, its continued desirability as a target, and the recent bombings of transportation systems in Madrid, Moscow, and London, the risk to public safety is substantial and real,' the US Second Circuit Court of Appeals said in its ruling.

The court shot down the New York (American) Civil Liberties Union position that random bag searches were unconstitutional and ineffective for pinning terrorists. The NYCLU had filed a lawsuit against the NYPD upon learning of the random subway station searches in what many police officers -- including this writer's cousin who is involved in supervising the searches -- characterize as a knee-jerk reaction to protecting New Yorkers from terrorism.

The court had heard testimony from counterterrorism experts who argued and demonstrated the effectiveness of the searches." More.