Federal judge Robert Sweet (an 82-year old Jimmy Carter appointee with a long history of controversial rulings) has decided that New York cops will not be allowed to search bags and backpacks at the Republican National Convention—unless they have specific information that an attack is about to happen: Cops rip judge: ‘It’s giving an open door to terrorists’. (Hat tip: Right Wing Conspirator.)

NYPD cops blasted a federal judge’s ruling aimed at stopping them from searching demonstrators’ bags outside the Republican National Convention, saying the decision gives “an open door to terrorists.”

Manhattan Federal Judge Robert Sweet’s decision - made public yesterday - prohibits blanket searches of bulky bags and backpacks in the absence of a “specific threat.”

“In this day and age of terrorism, it’s an extremely dangerous step in a very dangerous time in New York City,” said an outraged Michael Palladino, president of the Detectives Endowment Association.

“It’s giving an open door to terrorists, and further handcuffing police at a time that they should be given a little bit more latitude,” Palladino said. He said he plans to urge Mayor Bloomberg to appeal the ruling.

Sweet’s decision also limits how many streets the NYPD can close around Madison Square Garden, and prohibits cops from penning protesters behind metal barricades.

The ruling does not prevent the use of hand-held metal-detecting wands around the perimeter of the convention.

Sweet wrote that his ruling is an attempt to “define a resolution which can serve to encourage free expression in a secure society.”

He described the preventive measure by police as an “invasion of personal privacy.”

Christopher Dunn, an attorney for the New York Civil Liberties Union, called it a “historic victory.”