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Pat-Downs At Bucs Home Games Halted Again

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By MIKE SALINERO

The Tampa Tribune

Published: September 16, 2008

TAMPA - A high school government teacher has won another court order delaying pat-down body searches before Tampa Bay Buccaneers games at Raymond James Stadium.

A judge with the 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals granted a motion by teacher Gordon Johnston's attorneys to maintain an injunction prohibiting the searches. Johnston's attorneys asked that the injunction continue while they appeal the case to the U.S. Supreme Court.

The order was immediately challenged by the Tampa Sports Authority, a public agency that runs the stadium. Sports Authority attorney Rick Zabak said he hopes to get the ruling reversed in several days.

The National Football League started requiring pat-down searches for its games in August 2005. Johnston, a Bucs season ticket holder since 2001, said the searches were a violation of his constitutional rights and filed suit after the second game of the 2005 season. The 13th Judicial Circuit Court in Tampa ordered an injunction stopping the searches Nov. 2, 2005. Since then, Johnston has kept the case alive and Raymond James Stadium has been the only NFL stadium where searches are not allowed.

Johnston said Monday that as a government teacher he would love to have his case heard by the Supreme Court. He challenged the search policy as a violation of the Fourth Amendment prohibition against unreasonable search and seizure.

"Being a government teacher and political science major, yeah, I'd like it, especially if they ruled in my favor," Johnston said. "But I also know there are thousands of appeals each year to the Supreme Court and they only take a handful."

Johnston attended Sunday's game between the Buccaneers and Atlanta Falcons.

"I probably will give up my tickets if they ever do" the searches, Johnston said. "To me, it's assault and battery without probable cause."

His attorney, Becky Steele, said the case is important because it challenges the notion that constitutional rights can be sacrificed in the name of security.

"What we really like about this was that our client is a high school civics teacher who understands the Fourth Amendment protects us from unreasonable searches," said Steele, regional director of the American Civil Liberties Union.

The sports authority was close to being able to resume the pat-down searches. In June, a three-judge panel at the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in favor of the sports authority, but before the appeals court could order the injunction lifted, Johnston's attorneys filed their motion.

The motion was granted by a judge at the appeals court who had not been part of the three-judge panel that reversed the injunction. Sports Authority counsel John Van Voris said that left an opening for the sports authority to appeal the order to the three-judge panel.

"There is a provision in appellate rules that says when some judge does that who doesn't sit on the panel that decided the case, you can ask the panel to rescind the decision of the acting judge," Van Voris said. "We have asked a full panel of three judges to restore the mandate."

In their order, the judges said Johnston had known about the NFL search policy but had attended two games anyway.

"The court concludes Johnston voluntarily consented to pat-down searches each time he presented himself at a stadium entrance to attend a game ... It was clear error for the District Court to find that Johnston did not voluntarily consent to the pat-down searches," the judges wrote in their opinion.

The Buccaneers' next game at Raymond James Stadium is Sept. 28.

Reporter Mike Salinero can be reached at msalinero@tampatrib.com or (813) 259-8303.

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