Pubdate: Tue, 16 Apr 2002 Source: Associated Press (Wire) Copyright: 2002 Associated Press Author: Anne Gearan HIGH COURT CONSIDERS DRUG SEARCHES WASHINGTON -- There's little room to move around on a Greyhound bus, which is one reason that two men caught ferrying drugs say they didn't feel free to get up and leave when police stood over them in the aisle and started asking questions. Government prosecutors says Christopher Drayton and Clifton Brown were not under arrest and could have either left their seats or ignored the officers' questions. Their case comes before the Supreme Court on Tuesday, where justices could use it to define better the rights of passengers aboard public transportation. The court said it will decide whether police who want to look for drugs or evidence of other crimes must first must inform passengers of their legal rights. Drayton and Brown won a lower court ruling that the 1999 drug sweep aboard a bus in Tallahassee, Fla., violated their constitutional protection against unreasonable searches. The Bush administration appealed to the Supreme Court, arguing that the officers did nothing wrong. "The officers showed no weapons, spoke politely and quietly with the passengers, and said nothing that might convey the message that cooperation was mandatory," Solicitor General Theodore Olson wrote in court papers. Three officers boarded the bus, bound for Detroit from Fort Lauderdale. One officer knelt backward in the driver's seat, facing the passengers. The other two worked their way from the back of the bus forward, asking passengers about their travel plans and about their luggage. An officer introduced himself to Drayton and Brown, and told them he was looking for illegal drugs and weapons. Drayton and Brown agreed to let officers search a bag in the overhead luggage rack, and it yielded no drugs or weapons. Police then asked to pat down the men's baggy clothing. The men agreed, and officers felt hard objects on the men's legs that turned out to be packets of cocaine. Both men were arrested and convicted of drug charges. "A reasonable passenger could not ignore the 'in your face' show of authority which officers employed in this case," lawyers for Drayton and Brown wrote. "The officers chose and exploited a coercive environment in which they knew they were most likely to get the consent they sought." The National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers is supporting the men, while Americans for Effective Law Enforcement and other groups back the government. The Supreme Court previously has ruled that police questioning aboard buses is not necessarily more coercive just because a passenger may have little room to move about. That ruling left some aspects of the police-passenger exchange in limbo, including the question of whether officers should always tell passengers that they have the right to refuse to cooperate. On appeal in this case, the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled the cocaine should not have been admitted as evidence, because the officers failed to give such a warning or otherwise inform the men of their rights. The encounter violated the Constitution's ban on unreasonable searches and seizures, in part because the men did not feel free to leave, the court said. The government argued that the appeals court's view threatens a common law enforcement tactic and conflicts with other federal appeals courts. The Bush administration also has invoked the war on terrorism as a reason the high court should reassert police power in similar situations. "In the current environment, (such searches) may ... become an important part of preventing other forms of criminal activity that involve travel on the nation's system of public transportation," Olson wrote. The case is United States v. Drayton, 01-631. On the Net: 11th Circuit Court of Appeals case: http://www.law.emory.edu/11circuit/oct2000/99-13814.man.html - --- MAP posted-by: Alex