ACLU sues to stop searches on ferries
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By John Zicconi Vermont Press Bureau - Published: October 5, 2004
MONTPELIER — A Colchester man claimed in a lawsuit Monday that new federal law that forces Lake Champlain ferries to search cars and passengers for bombs is unconstitutional.
Michael Cassidy, in conjunction with the Vermont Chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, filled the lawsuit in Burlington's federal court.
The suit names Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge and several high-ranking U.S. Coast Guard officials as defendants.
The 17-page complaint claims the Lake Champlain Transportation Company's random searches of automobile trunks and backpacks violates the Fourth Amendment that protects against unreasonable search and seizure.
The ACLU wants a federal judge to put an immediate stop to the searches until the case can be litigated.
"We think it sets a dangerous precedent," said William Nelson, Cassidy's attorney, who also works with the ACLU.
"If government can do this for a ferry, which is not a plausible terrorist target, it can do it anywhere," Nelson added. "If we were searched before getting on a bus, entering a busy building or a crowded city square we would look like a third-world police state."
The suit is believed to be the first legal challenge to the National Maritime Transportation Security Act of 2002, which requires all commercial water vessels that carry more than 150 passengers to establish protocols for screening people, bags and vehicles.
Companies that operate everything from cruise ships, dinner boats and ferries had to submit a security plan to the U.S. Coast Guard in 2003. Approved plans were put into effect in July.
"The purpose of this is to reduce the risk to our national ports and waterways of terrorist attacks," said Jolie Shefflet, a Coast Guard spokeswoman.
She said the Coast Guard does not comment on pending litigation. The U.S. attorney's office in Burlington will likely handle the case, she said.
Some 10,000 boats and 3,000 port facilities must comply with the maritime security act, including about 300 ferries, Shefflet said.
Nelson said the ACLU does not oppose government efforts to keep passenger vessels safe from terrorists. The Staten Island ferry in New York, for example, routinely has police officers and bomb-sniffing dogs on board, and the vessels are sometimes escorted by Coast Guard ships.
"These are things that don't infringe on constitutional rights," Nelson said. "They are less intrusive and more secure, and to me they are obviously more effective" than randomly searching cars and backpacks.
Lake Champlain Transportation Co. randomly searches vehicles and bags on its ferry crossings between Burlington and Port Kent, N.Y., and Grand Isle and Plattsburgh, N.Y.
"We have tried to minimize the impact on our customers and still follow Coast Guard law," said Heather Stewart, spokeswoman for the ferry company.
Cassidy rides the Grand Isle-to-Plattsburgh ferry four times a week. His car before boarding has been searched on four occasions since the law went into effect.
The searches amount to little more than a cursory look into his trunk and do not involve ferry personnel sifting through his belongings, Cassidy said. But there is no reason for the intrusion, he said.
"The rationale is just the general war on terror, and that is insufficient," said Cassidy, who is an attorney. "It's like saying there is a war on drugs, so let's start searching people."
For the search to be constitutional, Nelson said, the ferry company must use non-random search procedures like X-ray technology, video cameras or bomb-sniffing dogs to initially screen people and their vehicles.
Trunk or bag searches can be conducted only if these tools give security personnel probable cause to warrant them, he said.
The ferry company is likely conducting random searches because it is cheaper than investing in real security measures, Nelson said. Shefflet said the Coast Guard allows for "flexibility" in screening protocol, in part to contain cost.
"We think this is purely symbolic," Nelson said. "The ferries are not a probable target. … This is basically why we brought this suit. We don't think it is anything real that caused this program. We think is symbolic, and a bad kind of symbolism."
Contact John Zicconi at john.zicconi@rutlandherald.com.
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