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I was reminded of this thread by a conversation I had over lunch. The other person, who is from out of town, basically had the same idea as a lot of the previous posters: that this is basically unconstitutional.
He was stopped at his local WalMart and asked to open his bag. Knowing he hadn't stolen anything, he asked why they were stopping him. When they told him it was "store policy", he told them that it was illegal policy and tried to walk away. When the clerk grabbed him (which was really the mistake here), he calmly told the clerk that he was calling the police to report being assaulted and illegally detained. The manager showed up as he was talking with the police and physically tried to take the phone away from him, apologizing as he did it.
It turns out that WalMart corporate knows that this is illegal and tells the managers that they're on their own if they decide to pursue this course of action. And that having the store sued won't reflect well on the managers' future employment. When the police showed up, my acquaintance told them it was all a big misunderstanding, but not before he told the manager that if it ever happened again, he'd press charges.
He was quite impressed with himself.
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"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." - B. Franklin
"There ought to be limits to freedom." - George W. Bush
"We have met the enemy and he is us." - Pogo
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