NCJ Number
126570
Journal
Vanderbilt Law Review Volume: 43 Issue: 4 Dated: (May 1990) Pages: 1311-1341
Date Published
1990
Length
31 pages
Annotation
This article examines the impact of drug-enforcement surveillance in commercial transportation facilities on fourth amendment jurisprudence and determines whether passengers' seeming inability to vindicate unconstitutional searches negates any meaningful right to privacy.
Abstract
In Terry v. Ohio (1968), the U.S. Supreme Court recognized the practical necessity of permitting law enforcement officers to protect themselves by searching persons suspected of concealing weapons. Extension of the "Terry" exception to possessory offenses involving narcotics, however, results in a continual erosion of fourth amendment protection and a consequent subordination of individual privacy interests. Airline passengers have been particularly vulnerable to post-Terry analysis. In the course of surveillance activities, law enforcement officials currently routinely conduct personal searches to intercept drug traffickers. Using drug courier profiles as the basis for probable cause in a stop-and-search policy apparently exempts commercial travelers from all expectation of privacy. One empirical study indicates that as many as 50 people are stopped, questioned, and searched for every arrest. By using a fact-specific balancing test, the U.S. Supreme Court shows no inclination to safeguard fourth amendment rights against efforts to target drug couriers. 217 footnotes