Superguy

Because I don't care about my kid!

Super

*for those with no sense of humor, I really do love my son.

doober

We don't "hate" security and America. In fact, we love our country and it's freedoms. What we hate is watching those freedoms being slowly eroded in the name of "security", which is no security at all.

"The Fourth Amendment embodies a value judgment by the Framers that prevents us from gardually trading ever-increasing amounts of freedom and privacy for additional security. It establishes searches based on evidence-rather than potentially effective, broad prophylactic dragnets-as the constitutions norm." Bourgeois 387 F.3d at 1312.

Superguy

I think your sarcasometer needs its batteries changed.

doober

You are probably right - however, Doppy often uses emoticons and he didn't with this post.

FWAAA

The best part of these rulings, IMO, is the inevitable impact they will have on the growing desire of municipalities to search users of public transportation. As Bart often points out, there are plenty of lower court rulings approving of airport searches, but I'm not familiar with any court rulings approving of subway, bus or train searches.

Funny that in the Soldier Field dispute, the police and Park District are forced to argue that the searches the NFL demands are unconstitutional; the reality is that they probably simply don't want to pay for the searches under their existing contractual duty to provide security at Soldier Field.

I agree with mbstone; a wholly private facility would alleviate this problem for the "let's pat down everybody everyday crowd" but I also agree with PatrickHenry1775 that many sporting venues will have to remain under public ownership due to financing issues or simply political reality.

LessO2

This decision got reversed today.

coachrowsey

That sucks. If only this crap would end at the airports.

bocastephen

Idiots. Yet another reason to ignore the NFL and concentrate on College Football.

OTOH, if they had the players and cheerleaders doing the patdowns, maybe it wouldn't be so bad

Did anyone think the original ruling would stand for long? At least it didn't get to the Supreme Court, where Scalia could have written about how everyone should get a DNA sample taken for a national database and have a GPS tracking device inserted into their bodies.

coachrowsey

Can I get a female cheerleader patdown

CO FF

Forget that - if the fans could pat down the players or cheerleaders (each fan gets to choose)...that would be great!

A simple fix for the NFL would be to make 1 gate a "no patdown" gate, but (a) require a hand magnetometer, (b) allow no packages - period, and (c) provide only 2 staff people. Then, the other gates would move fast, as people give up rights for convenience, and the few who care about making statements for their civil liberties would suffer (as is desired by those who run our country today).

Superguy

There is no constitutional right to attend a football game, but there is a constitutional right against harassment. Is it truly consensual if they hold your ticket hostage and prevent you from getting in if you don't "consent" to the search?

I hope this goes before all 12 judges.

SirFlysALot

Football is better on TV anyway. If a guy 2 feet from the ball can be fooled what chance do I have 50 or 100 yards away to figure it out?

Now baseball is better in person!

MikeMpls

[guess]

My guess is that the decision would be limited to (1) police officers at any venue, and (2) and any security contracted by a public venue.

Private security guards at private facilities wouldn't be affected.

Private security guards at private events in public facilities would have to take care to operate independently of law enforcement & the facilities' managment.

[/guess]

This is a good step in the right direction.

Later: Didn't notice that this is an old thread, sorry about that, but now that I'm here ....

I hope the decision is upheld on appeal. Generally government cannot require that you relinquish your rights.

In this case, however, the NFL is quoted in the above-linked SFGATE article as being strongly in favor of the patdown searches. As a private organization (and football games are really private events in public facilities), they probably can find a way to circumvent any final decision.

gofast

I always figured those patdowns were really less about stopping a terrorist attack and more about confiscating bottles. (consequently selling more beer)

Big Mo

I don't think there's any question about it. From my experience, many of the people conducting the patdowns are less competent than your average TSAer.