ohn Perry Barlow tries to fight prosecution for flying with drugs (more war on terror consequences)

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Eric Gross <e () ericgross com>
Date: December 20, 2004 11:08:54 AM EST
To: farber () cis upenn edu
Subject: John Perry Barlow tries to fight prosecution for flying with 
drugs (more war on terror consequences)

Grateful Dead's former lyricist finds tough fight against searches
John Perry Barlow, former Grateful Dead lyricist and current 
cyber-rights activist, had hoped to use his arrest on drug charges to 
shed light on how the Transportation Security Administration conducts 
its baggage searches.

 While most defendants caught by airport security with small amounts of 
contraband typically plead guilty to misdemeanor charges, Barlow 
decided to fight. He was arrested after a baggage screener at San 
Francisco International Airport in 2003 found small amounts of 
marijuana and hallucinogens in an Advil bottle in his checked luggage. 
He was immediately pulled off a Delta flight and handcuffed. He spent 
all day in San Mateo County Jail.

 But Judge Harry Papadakis, a retired Fresno judge, ruled Wednesday 
that the search of Barlow's checked luggage was reasonable under the 
U.S. Constitution, and now he must face trial next spring on the 
charges in San Mateo Superior Court.

 "I'm distressed," Barlow said after the ruling, calling it a blow to 
civil rights. "What the judge is saying is that when you are going to 
travel, you make yourself subject to any search no matter how thorough; 
the search can be as wide as possible."

 Barlow had claimed he was the subject of an unlawful search and 
seizure under the Fourth Amendment; the screener can look in checked 
baggage for explosives and incendiary devices that might be used to 
blow up an airplane, his attorney argued, but not drugs.

 It was a pair of laser gloves Barlow used at the Burning Man festival 
that initially caught the baggage screener's attention when an X-ray 
machine showed wires, electrodes and batteries in checked luggage.



http://www.contracostatimes.com/mld/cctimes/news/10453495.htm?1c
 

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