New York City Police Officers check a passenger's bag at a subway entrance Oct. 7. The constitutionality of this practice is going to trial.
		By John Smock, AP

U.S. District Judge Richard M. Berman in Manhattan was scheduled to hear evidence and testimony in the case for two to three days. Afterward, lawyers will present written and oral arguments to the judge before a ruling is made.

At issue is a random search of the subways that was put in place in the nation's largest subway system after deadly bombings by terrorists in London's subway system in July.

The New York Civil Liberties Union, which brought the lawsuit on behalf of several subway riders, said in court papers filed last week that its own survey from Aug. 25 to Sept. 16 of 5,500 subway turnstile entrances found a total of 34 searches underway.

It said the search program in the 468 subway stations serving 26 train lines "has no meaningful value in preventing the entry of explosive devices into the system by the terrorists the NYPD is attempting to thwart."

The city maintains that the mere presence of a random search program, regardless of how it is administered, is a valuable tool to thwart terrorists who prefer to target vulnerable areas with a low police presence for attacks.

City lawyers have noted that an al-Qaeda training manual advising terrorists to avoid police checkpoints gives the city some justification for its random searches of bags entering the subway system.

Michael Cardozo, head of the city's law office, said Friday: "We are confident when the judge hears the evidence, he will find that the bag searches are perfectly constitutional and designed to protect the safety of all New Yorkers and visitors."

So far, the city has been successful in efforts to fight the lawsuit.

Berman has already ruled that the city did not have to tell the NYCLU specific information about how it conducts its random searches such as the number of subway stations each day where no searches were done.

"The city may be able to demonstrate that the Subway Search Program effectively deters terrorism precisely because it is random and unpredictable," the judge wrote in a decision.

Earlier this month when security was heightened amid a terrorism scare, the judge suggested that the case might not proceed at all. But he later scheduled the three-day trial.

Christopher Dunn, the NYCLU's associate legal director, on Friday said the program of "suspicionless police searches is unprecedented."

He added: "While we fully support reasonable and effective security measures, we believe this program marks a dramatic and unjustified erosion of the privacy rights of the American public."

In its court papers, the NYCLU insisted it had the law on its side, saying the searches were "unprecedented in this country, and no court has ever endorsed anything like it."

It said that by Monday, about 400 million people will have used the New York subway system since the city announced the start of the searches on July 21.

It suggested that the searches were akin to stopping people randomly on the street and searching them since the subway system "is a direct, physical extension of the sidewalks of New York City."