The group of five people have been joined in their lawsuit by the New York Civil Liberties Union. They say, in addition to being a violation of privacy, the policy is ineffective, because anybody can refuse the search and then turn around and get into the system at any one of New York's four hundred and sixty seven other subway stations.

Brendan MacWade is one of the five people involved in the lawsuit. He was in one of the World Trade Centre buildings when it was hit by a plane nearly four years ago:

"I think it's fair to say that I want to catch real terrorists as much as any politician or law enforcement official. But this policy of random searches without suspicion does not work, and that is why I've joined this lawsuit."

The random search policy was created to avoid any charges of racial profiling while trying to keep potential bombers out of New York's subway system. A lawyer for the city says the searches meet all legal requirements. But the New York Civil Liberties Union calls it a needle in a haystack approach to law enforcement that just doesn't work.