SUPREME COURT DEBATES RIGHTS OF BUS PASSENGERS IN SEARCHES

Attorneys Seek Ruling To Force Police To Tell Riders They May Refuse

WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court debated bus passengers' rights yesterday in
a case testing the limits of officers' authority to seek out possible drug
dealers or terrorists on public transportation.

Most justices seemed unswayed by arguments that passengers, confined to
small spaces, might feel coerced when officers board and ask permission to
search their belongings.

Larry D. Thompson, deputy attorney general, said officers should not be
saddled with court-imposed rules for conducting sweeps.

"Buses in today's environment are vulnerable, vulnerable to specific public
safety concerns," he told the court.

The case of two men arrested with drugs on a Greyhound bus in Florida came
to the court as private airline travelers deal with baggage searches and
more intrusive personal checks for weapons.

Public transportation riders might incorrectly believe they have to agree
to searches, Justice Stephen G. Breyer said.

Justices have a chance to tell police who want to look for drugs or
evidence of other crimes that they must first inform passengers of their
legal rights.

Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist warned that such a ruling would create
"another layer of litigation." Justice Anthony M. Kennedy said arguments
that "the government has some obligation to teach everybody about their
rights - that's a sweeping proposition and not required by the Constitution."

Gwendolyn Spivey, an assistant federal public defender representing the bus
passengers, said the court should recognize that typically bus riders are
poorer and have less knowledge of their rights. "They don't know who their
congressman is," she said.

The millions of people who use public transportation should be free from
unreasonable searches, she said.

The two men caught ferrying drugs say they didn't feel free to get up and
leave when police stood over them in the aisle of a Greyhound bus and
started asking questions.

Officers asked to pat down the men's baggy clothing. The men agreed, and
officers found packets of cocaine. The two men were convicted on drug charges.

Christopher Drayton and Clifton Brown won a lower court ruling that the
1999 drug sweep aboard a bus in downtown Tallahassee, Fla., violated their
constitutional protection against unreasonable searches.

Thompson said the officers did not point weapons or use threatening
language while checking passengers on the bus, which was headed to Detroit
from Fort Lauderdale.