Injunction sought on MBTA searches
Two groups went to federal court yesterday to try to stop heavily armed police from swarming onto Orange Line trains at the Haymarket and Bunker Hill Community College stations and inspecting the bags of all passengers.
US Judge George A. O'Toole took the lawsuit under advisement and was expected to issue a ruling soon, since the searches will be conducted for only another two days.
Michael Avery, attorney for the National Lawyers Guild, which sought the injunction along with the American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, said that because passengers are not specifically suspected of anything, the searches violate the Fourth Amendment ban on unreasonable search and seizure.
The searches on the Orange Line -- at the two stations prior to the trains passing the FleetCenter, the venue for this week's Democratic National Convention -- are different from "suspicionless" searches that the US Supreme Court has approved for courthouses and airports, Avery said, in part because the threat of a terrorist attack is general and vague.
The groups narrowed their focus on the Orange Line searches, leaving unchallenged the MBTA's random search policy, which might continue after the convention. Rudolph Pierce, attorney for the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, said that "the last thing the MBTA wants to be thought of is going out of its way interfering with civil liberties."
The Orange Line searches are part of a broad baggage inspection policy that is a "moderate" response given federal warnings about attacks on transit systems in cities hosting political conventions, he said.
Last week, Boston became the first transit system in the country to search passengers' bags. An estimated 1.1 million ride the T every weekday.
O'Toole asked Pierce if passengers had been adequately notified that the on-board Orange Line searches would be taking place this week.
Avery said that the searches were alarming because they were entering into people's everyday lives, that for many the subway was the only way to get around, and that passengers would be stranded if they refused to be searched.
Stephen Spain, an Orange Line rider headed home to Melrose who got kicked off at Haymarket station Monday after refusing to open his briefcase to be searched, said he agreed with Avery's contention in court yesterday that the searches were "very intimidating and coercive."
"It's a creepy feeling, to come into a station and have police board the train, then be removed for not cooperating," said Spain.
Anthony Flint can be reached at flint@globe.com.
