How Far Will Americans Let The TSA Go?
Complacent Americans already let unskilled government workers grope their balls and vaginas, entirely sans probable cause, in order to complete normal business travel or fly off to see Granny.
Recently, they started "testing" drinks at the gate -- drinks purchased in the terminal! (Is it their fault they're too busy checking some Alzheimer's patient's diaper to be concerned with the food deliveries to the airport?)
Gordan Runyan writes at FreedomOutpost about a poll InfoWars is preparing:
In light of increasingly egregious evidence of TSA abuse, Infowars has commissioned a professional polling agency to gauge the American public's perception of what exactly constitutes crossing-the-line behavior on behalf of the TSA, and to learn to what extent Americans are willing to give up their dignity and personal freedoms if told it was for the greater good. One question that we'll definitely ask is if Americans would be willing to submit to anal cavity probes. [Emphasis added.]
via @mpetrie98
What I want to know is where are the lawyers?
And I ask this out of ignorance and curiosity.
I am led to believe that attorneys are professionals whose ethical and professional licensing requires some amount of pro-bono work, and some obligation to uphold the Constitution. At the least I am led to believe there are lawyers that hold the Constitution dear.
I truly don't understand why we don't have groups of lawyers, organized like the civil rights movements were and are, with websites and well known acronyms, with funding as needed, to file lawsuit after lawsuit, give advice to citizens, and stage, ala Rosa Parks, well known and well defended acts intended to take TSA to court and otherwise embarrass any administration or official that supports these searches.
Amy, as part of tsanews, or your blogging here, maybe you could ask a few of our internet lawyer bloggers (Turley, Volokh, Reynolds, Jacobsen, Althouse, Randazza, ...) why that is, and what it would take to change that situation.
And you might ask them for me, just what are the obligations, if any, of lawyers to do pro bono work and somehow uphold the constitution?
I have to say, where I am right now in my personal life, I would be very ready to follow some civil rights organization provided script to violate a TSA rule and accept the consequences as part of an act of civil disobedience.
(That said, a lot of Americans would not turn on the news just to follow the travails of some middle aged, slightly obese, random loser as he gets processed by the TSA.)
jerry at October 14, 2012 12:42 PM
Some TSA jerkweed wants to test my overpriced 'sterile' drink, they'll be (oops) wearing it. So sorry.
DrCos at October 14, 2012 1:52 PM
Oh, all the way! I'd let my TSA agent go as far as he wants, then as far as I want! Give me some buff, hunky TSA agent, and he can grope me to his heart's content and to MY heart's content.
"Oooooh, yes...oh, right there! Oh, God, I love it! Ooh, you've done this before! Oh, yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Oh, God...so...can I get your cell number?"
Patrick at October 14, 2012 2:43 PM
Short answer Jerry, the lawyers are smart enough to stay out of it.
The government, i.e the TSA, has soverign immunity.
There is no constitutional right to travel on a commercial airline. When you buy a ticket on a commercial plane, you are buying a license with all sorts of terms and conditions you must meet to use that license.
There is no constitutional right to a driver's license, or a car.
You have no more right to fly without being screened by the TSA, than you have to carry a gun into a federal court house. There are no constitutional issues here.
Isab at October 14, 2012 3:37 PM
Isab, do you say that with satisfaction?
You've cited a "two wrongs" fallacy. Do you know what a fallacy is?
Also, you've completely missed the nature of the contract with the airline. The airline doesn't insist you be fondled while baggage handlers steal your luggage. The airline doesn't pat you down while ignoring the caterers and the mechanics.
The airline simply cannot move without FAA permission.
Gee, you also missed that TSA "officers" have no arrest powers. Maybe you'd like to explain why un-sworn people have the right to search you.
You. Personally. Someone with no more to their uniform than someone in the local marching band.
The Lemuel Penn case established a right to travel.
That no one insists that they are the actual owners of the American republic might make you happy but it's not the way to keep yourself from being persecuted/ All it takes now is for your ethnic group to be identified as "the problem".
Maybe you'll join a couple of the other semi-regulars here, in remaining totally silent when asked, "What method of travel is your right?", and "What method of travel negates the 4th Amendment?"
But make no mistake. Remaining mum about the abuse of "others" makes it easy for you to be next.
Bend over. If you have nothing to hide, you should not object to this body cavity search. It's for your own safety.
(Apparently, people have things inserted in their anus without their knowledge. I'm pretty sure they adopt ideas like yours that way.)
Radwaste at October 14, 2012 6:55 PM
"Some TSA jerkweed wants to test my overpriced 'sterile' drink, they'll be (oops) wearing it. So sorry."
EXACTLY!
I've "thought" about this in the past and while I would probably not toss my drink onto the TSA Ageny, I would definitely just drop the drink right where I stood and hope it spilled on the TSA Agent, and perhaps more importantly caused a spill in the airport for them to clean up.
Alice's Restaurant like, a campaign of dropping your TSA tested drinks and making the airport clean up after you would probably stop the TSA from testing drinks like that, because the airports do have some leverage over TSA behaviors.
jerry at October 14, 2012 7:59 PM
http://www.ca3.uscourts.gov/opinarch/043841p.pdf
This case explains pretty clearly why an adminstrative search is not a 4th Ammendment violation.
I dont take much pleasure in knowing what the law is, and how the courts might hold. However, my JD does keep me from tilting at windmills, on rare occasions. I won't fly an American carrier until the TSA is either gone or defanged.
Ironically the quickest way for the TSA to generate a winnable lawsuit would be if they actually did it a way it would be effective, by targeting middle eastern and African males. If they did that, there would be a good argument for an equal protection violation.
Isab at October 15, 2012 1:13 AM
Now you've just illustrated how the law is upside-down, in that the group most likely - and there is no argument about this - cannot be acknowledged.
It extends to other aspects of American life, too. The reason your child has police in the classroom is the idiocy of treating the thug and the scholar.
Radwaste at October 15, 2012 2:55 AM
Leave a comment