First, commuters got stopped at Metro stations for random bag searches, now they will be stopped for their signatures to fight those same searches.
The D.C. Bill of Rights Coalition and the Montgomery County Civil Rights Coalition are planning to ask riders at Union Station on Wednesday evening to join their petition opposing Metro’s new bag searches.
The transit agency began checkpoints to randomly screen riders’ belongings for explosives Tuesday morning after announcing the new policy last week. Additional checkpoints could occur anywhere in the system at any point.
The two civil liberties groups argue that such searches violate the Fourth Amendment. “The guys who put together the Constitution had a point: we shouldn’t be subject to unreasonable searches and seizures,” said Pat Elder, a co-founder of the D.C. group.
Metro officials have defended the policy, saying that riders who do not want to be searched can leave their bags behind — or leave the stations and bus stops being screened. Transit agencies in New York, New Jersey and Boston have done similar searches.
But the civil liberties groups plan to continue their campaign against them until at least the Jan. 3 Metro Riders’ Advisory Council public forum on the searches.
The groups had collected about 500 signatures as of Wednesday, Elder said. “We’ve only been doing it not two days yet,” he added. “We’re really happy with the petition so far.”
