It may be constitutionally permissible, but talk about a technicality. Most people, (including myself), always assumed that the 4th amendment applied to public places. The subway is definitely a public place, it is certainly not a private place. (Any and all are allowed to use it, in theory).
All discretionary police searches rub me the wrong way, such as traffic stops where they search the car because someone fits an unreasonably broad "profile". It was determined at one time that the DEA's profile of potential drug trafficors at airports could include almost anyone. Or on the road, where "obeying the speed limit" would raise a caution flag.
And worst of all, these searches are incredibly inefficient/ineffective, terrorists have shown themselves to be a little more savvy and adaptable than that. And of course they would have to harass every other Swedish tourist and Asian schoolchild in order not to be racially profiling.
It's a double loser; you either live in a *****hole tinhorn country where everyone who doesn't look like an off-duty cop gets messed with, or the PC version where everyone gets an equal dose of stupid, ineffectual law enforcement.
They need to build the dam further upstream, a lot further. And it ain't in Iraq, so don't read this as an endorsement of the status quo.
