Several civil liberties groups announced today they will sue to prevent Massachussetts from implementing plans to search mass transit passengers and their belongings.

Civil rights groups said Monday that the MBTA's proposed searches of bags and packages on subway and commuter trains would be unconstitutional, and urged riders to not give their consent. The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority wants to begin random searches next month, an anti-terrorism measure it plans to have in place before the July 26-29 Democratic National Convention. The civil rights groups said they'll file a lawsuit to stop the T from instituting the policy which would be the first of its kind in the country.

''Public transportation is a community resource that should be available to everybody without requiring people to sacrifice their constitutional rights in order to use it,'' said Michael Avery, president of the Massachusetts chapter of the National Lawyers Guild.

We agree. We taught the TL kid early on to protect his rights. Here's how he described it in an essay he wrote in high school that we just happened to have kept:

I have always been taught to stand up for what I believe is right. For as long as I can remember, my mother, a criminal defense lawyer, always recited anecdotes like: "If an officer stops you and asks you to waive your rights so he can search the car, just tell him ‘I'm sorry, Sir, but I only wave the flag.'" She added that the "Sir" was the most important part, but even being polite wouldn't spare me from the probable beating I would get for being smart with the officer. The point being that asserting your rights can be painful, and often, all you are left with is the knowledge that you did the right thing.