Eleventh Cir: Terror Fears No Excuse to Search Protestors
The Eleventh Circuit ruled Friday that vague fears of terrorism do not justify blanket searches of people protesting the U.S. Army’s “School of the Americas” military training program. The court found the searches violated protestors’ Fourth Amendment reasonable expectations of privacy and their First Amendment speech and assembly rights. In particular, the court took issue with the city’s assertions that it needed to engage in
“mass, warrantless, suspicionless searches.”
Indeed, it is
quite possible that our nation would be safer if police were permitted to stop and
search anyone they wanted, at any time, for no reason at all. Nevertheless, the Fourth Amendment embodies a value judgment by the Framers that prevents us from gradually trading ever-increasing amounts of freedom and
privacy for additional security. It establishes searches based on evidencerather
than potentially effective, broad, prophylactic dragnetsas the constitutional
norm.
As a bonus, the court cites to Wikipedia on the DHS color-coded “advisory” system. An “elevated” threat level, where the gage has been for almost all of its sorry existence, cannot justify abrogating our constitutional rights.
Via IP
