## Facts

- Federal authorities implemented an anti-hijacking screening program using a neutral passenger “profile,” magnetometer screening, identification checks, and limited detention and pat-downs when indicated.
- The program’s profile was designed to rely on objective, observable characteristics and to exclude race, religion, and social class.
- On November 14, 1970, Frank Lorenzi Lopez and a companion attempted to board a Pan American flight from JFK Airport to Puerto Rico.
- Airline personnel designated both men as “selectees,” reported that they matched the profile, triggered the magnetometer, and failed to produce identification.
- Deputy U.S. Marshals required both men to pass through the magnetometer again; both triggered it and still did not provide identification.
- The marshals escorted them to a nearby private area and performed a frisk for weapons.
- During the frisk, a marshal felt and removed a tinfoil-covered plastic envelope containing white powder; a field test indicated heroin.
- Lopez was charged with concealing and facilitating transportation of heroin and conspiracy under 21 U.S.C. §§ 173, 174, and moved pretrial to suppress the heroin.
- Evidence showed Pan Am had modified the federal profile by adding ethnicity-based characteristics.

## Issues

1. Whether the federal airport anti-hijacking screening program (profile selection, magnetometer screening, ID checks, brief detention, and limited frisk) is reasonable under the Fourth Amendment.
2. Whether the search of Lopez and seizure of heroin were constitutional where airline personnel applied a distorted version of the profile incorporating ethnicity.
3. Whether contraband discovered during a weapons-oriented frisk is admissible if the initial selection for screening was constitutionally defective.

## Decision

- The court held the anti-hijacking screening system, as designed by the government, was constitutional under the Fourth Amendment.
- The court granted Lopez’s motion to suppress because the program was implemented against him in an irrational and prejudicial manner through ethnicity-based distortion of the profile.
- The heroin was suppressed as the product of an unconstitutional search.

## Legal Principles

- Airport screening measures may constitute reasonable searches when justified by compelling public-safety concerns and limited to methods reasonably tailored to detecting weapons and preventing hijacking.
- A screening program’s reasonableness depends on objective, neutral criteria and nondiscriminatory application; arbitrary or prejudicial selection can invalidate an otherwise permissible procedure.
- Contraband discovered during a lawful weapons frisk may be seized, but the seizure is unlawful if the underlying selection and search are tainted by unconstitutional criteria.

## Conclusion

The court approved airport anti-hijacking screening in principle as a limited, safety-driven search, but suppressed the heroin because the defendant’s selection for heightened screening was influenced by an ethnically biased, non-neutral modification of the profile, rendering the resulting frisk and seizure unconstitutional.


United States v. Lopez, 328 F. Supp. 1077 (E.D.N.Y. 1971)