<http://www.contracostatimes.com/mld/cctimes/news/10453495.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp> Posted on Sun, Dec. 19, 2004 Grateful Dead's former lyricist finds tough fight against searches By Mary Anne Ostrom 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. Barlow's attorney had tried to convince the judge that his client's case would expose the federal agency's baggage check policies as nothing but "a stalking horse" for much broader criminal investigations. The defense did elicit testimony from airport police that they work closely with the Transportation Security Administration, Drug Enforcement Agency and baggage screening contractors to act on drug tips, but that's not what led to Barlow's arrest. The screener, Sandra Ramos, testified Wednesday that when she opened up Barlow's hanging bag, she unzipped one of two compartments. Instead of finding the gloves, she found a large bottle of Advil. She told prosecutors she opened the bottle and dumped out the pills because it seemed much heavier than a normal bottle should be and possibly could have contained explosive material. And that's when she found the marijuana -- less than a quarter of an ounce -- and some fungus-like material that turned out to be hallucinogenic mushrooms. She then unzipped the other side and found the gloves. Law enforcement officials also identified the club drug ketamine and hypodermic needles in the luggage and later found Ecstasy in Barlow's wallet. Barlow is facing five misdemeanor counts. He has said the marijuana was for medicinal purposes and that the needles were used to inject hay fever medication. But from the start of Wednesday's hearing, the key issue was not drugs: It was how much testimony on Transportation Security Administration procedures would be allowed. San Mateo County Deputy District Attorney Aaron Fitzgerald argued that Barlow "was on a fishing expedition" in his attempt to open up the government's policies and procedures. Two government attorneys representing the federal agency sat directly behind Fitzgerald, arguing several times that witnesses could not answer defense questions because information such as how X-ray equipment is used and how workers are trained could "make it easier for terrorists." The judge sided with the prosecution at nearly every turn. As co-founder of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Barlow has never been shy about condemning the government for what he sees as restricting freedoms. Wednesday's hearing drew more than half a dozen cyber activists. During a hearing recess, before the ruling, Barlow told reporters, "If you are going to have a free country, you certainly have to understand the circumstances under which you can be searched and detained." As for the laser gloves, Barlow showed up in court with them Wednesday. In fact, Barlow packed them in the same suitcase that had been the subject of the search. "The gloves made it through court security today," he said. "Nobody said a thing." -- ----------------- R. A. Hettinga <mailto: rah@ibuc.com> The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.com/> 44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA "... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity, [predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'