Decius wrote:

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."

If you see they are searching today, you can take an alternate means of transportation, or walk to the next stop. Terrorists are unlikely to do this, because it screws up their operational plan. Frankly, if they can search everyone getting on an airplane, they can search people getting on trains. They can search people going into schools, going into malls, going into stores. They can search people everywhere. They can search them all the time. As long as its possible that a bomb might go off there, the searches will be considered reasonable.

There a nice Green Eggs and Ham rhythm to that, I'm just to damn pissed to think of it.

Decius wrote:

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."

If you see they are searching today, you can take an alternate means of transportation, or walk to the next stop. Terrorists are unlikely to do this, because it screws up their operational plan. Frankly, if they can search everyone getting on an airplane, they can search people getting on trains. They can search people going into schools, going into malls, going into stores. They can search people everywhere. They can search them all the time. As long as its possible that a bomb might go off there, the searches will be considered reasonable.

Let's see, the last few places I was searched at: Airports, concerts, rock festivals, former places of employment (non-government associated, strangely enough). I still don't understand why people are submitting to searches at concerts other than the same reason as airports -- you paid $55 or $100 for tickets (or $400 in the case of airfare) so either you submit or you waste money. I'm suprised no one has tried to use the fourth when dealing with Wal*Mart. I object to being searched on the basis that some machine went off when they cannot definatively prove which person set it off.