The New York City Metropolitan Transit Authority has decided that random searches of people on the NYC MTA will help make the system more secure. However, the Fourth Amendment of the Bill of Rights says that we are protected from unreasonable search and seizure. Nothing says you have to consent to a random search. But, it is highly recommended that you submit to such a search request. However, consenting to the search reduces the protections the Constitution grants you—submitting does not not give up any protections of your Fourth Amendment rights. It is a fine difference, but an important one.
For more on this issue, there’s a good post by Kip Esquire on how to preserve your rights if you are asked to be searched. You can read the full post here.
Mind you, this isn’t to say that I am against the idea of preventing terrorist attacks, but I don’t think the searches are the best way to go about it… I also do believe that the Constitution and the Bill of Rights need to be protected as well. Doing searches of people at random is bound to violate more civil rights than it is likely to find “hidden” terrorists.
One other thing I’d like to quote from one of Bruce Schneier’s posts.
Final note: I often get comments along the lines of “Stop criticizing stuff; tell us what we should do.” My answer is always the same. Counterterrorism is most effective when it doesn’t make arbitrary assumptions about the terrorists’ plans. Stop searching bags on the subways, and spend the money on 1) intelligence and investigation — stopping the terrorists regardless of what their plans are, and 2) emergency response — lessening the impact of a terrorist attack, regardless of what the plans are. Countermeasures that defend against particular targets, or assume particular tactics, or cause the terrorists to make insignificant modifications in their plans, or that surveil the entire population looking for the few terrorists, are largely not worth it.