Posted at 11:06 a.m., Thursday, October 11, 2007
NFL: Court to hear case on pat-downs at 49ers games
Associated Press
SAN FRANCISCO — California's high court said it will consider whether the San Francisco 49ers' policy to pat down fans before they enter a home game is an invasion of privacy.The justice's decision yesterday follows a 2-1 ruling in July by a lower court allowing the searches.
Two season-ticket holders sued the team in 2005 for privacy invasion after the 49ers instituted the policy as part of the National Football League's anti-terrorism security efforts.
The California Court of Appeal said Daniel and Kathleen Sheehan knew of the searches before buying their seats and so waived their privacy concerns. The court further said fans could qu vera, argued her colleagues too easily tossed aside the Sheehans' privacy concerns.
"The courts' role in protecting privacy rights should not be so readily abdicated," Rivera wrote. "If you are the only game in town, requiring your customers to either submit to a pat-down search or walk away does not present the kind of genuine choice upon which the majority's reasoning is premised."
The NFL policy has survived at least two other legal challenges. A federal appeals court in Florida and a federal district court judge in Seattle have each upheld pat-down searches at Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Seattle Seahawks home games.
