Ah,
Terry, one of my favorite cases. As you can all see, the discussions of probable cause and reasonable suspicion have a long and complicated history. I bet within the next few years the Supreme Court will add to that. Which is pretty cool from a constitutional scholarship standpoint.
Now, onto practicalities. RP and I were discussing this last night. With unlimited funds (oh yeah, those are always just lying around ....
), NYC could potentially put a metal detector at every subway entrance. After all, far as I'm aware, the only way to get on the NYC subway is via a station -- there are no above-ground stops at bus-stop-like kiosks (if I'm wrong, please tell me). Look for, if it isn't patented already, some sort of system being invented to combine the turnstile with a metal detector -- but only if there are more attacks and there are some constitutional challenges. Otherwise, it'll be business as usual soon enough -- the NYC subway system is huge, complex and very, very busy. Searching a lot of people is simply neither practical nor cost-effective. Random searches are okay constitutionally but not terribly effective. Profiling is currently not favored constitutionally but I suspect that will change in the next Supreme Court term or two. Hence it will probably turn into a lot of threats of searches and checks, but the reality may very well be that those threats are generally empty, unless inspectors from Homeland Security are around or it's an election year.
But onto Boston. Here's where the whole system goes kerflooey. You see, in Boston, there are several above-ground stations. And, for buses, if you have your T (MBTA, our transportation system) pass, they let you onto the back of the bus if it's crowded, long as you vaguely wave your pass so the driver can see it. The pass is not swiped. Outbound on the green lines, the trolley is both above-ground and free, so no one is checking. You just get on and off. Late at night, when the bars are closing, after sporting events and other big social-type activities, and when the students first come back to town, they really pack 'em into the trolleys. You can barely breathe, you're sharing oxygen and allergens with Bob from Accounting in Burlington, DJ Newburyport and little Susie from westa Worcester. It's, in a word, very close.
How exactly can the MBTA/Homeland Security keep the trolleys running if everyone needs to be checked prior to getting on? After all, way outbound, perhaps, is not a great terrorist target, as the buildings aren't as close together and the areas are less crowded, but inbound brings you to shopping and governmental areas, plus big businesses. It's very, very crowded -- and this is queasy-making -- quite the target for someone wishing to take out large numbers of people. A trolley goes from Boston College, where everyone gets on above ground and ends up in Park Street, the center of town, with huge numbers of shoppers and commuters. How, practically speaking and searches and seizures aside, are those people going to be protected?
I wish I had the answer to this but I do not, and I suspect few people do, either, except for the ever-popular "do nothing until there's a problem, then organize a commission, throw a lot of money at them and, inevitably, do nothing".
And this ain't just a problem here. What about the historic trolleys in San Francisco? And what about buses? Many smaller towns and cities have buslines even if they don't have subway systems. Kinda gives ya a headache, eh?
