Did you assume that once you got to the airport, if the TSA was doing something you didn’t like, you could just opt-out and decide not to fly? The answer is — nope. According to CNN and the TSA, a ruling from the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals compels all passengers to be screened, whether they fly or not. Refusing screening will result in being denied access to secure airport areas and may result in civil penalties.
“Advanced imaging technology screening is optional for all passengers,” TSA said in a statement released Monday. “Passengers who opt out of [advanced imaging] screening will receive alternative screening, including a physical pat-down.”
But anyone who refuses to complete the screening process will be denied access to airport secure areas and could be subject to civil penalties, the administration said, citing a federal appeals court ruling in support of the rule.
The ruling, from the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, says that “requiring that a potential passenger be allowed to revoke consent to an ongoing airport security search makes little sense in a post-9/11 world. Such a rule would afford terrorists multiple opportunities to attempt to penetrate airport security by ‘electing not to fly’ on the cusp of detection until a vulnerable portal is found.”
Meanwhile, backlash against the new scanners is growing. A “We Won’t Fly” day of protest has been established and the issue now has its own website.
Are you ready to stop flying over this?
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I heard today that Michael Chertoff is the asshole responsible for these machines. The Chertoff Group, a security consulting agency, includes a client that manufactures the machines. “The relationship drew attention after Chertoff disclosed it on a CNN program Wednesday, in response to a question.”
“Chertoff’s advocacy for the technology dates back to his time in the Bush administration. In 2005, Homeland Security ordered the government’s first batch of the scanners — five from California-based Rapiscan Systems [chertoff's company].”
Chertoff’s advocacy for the technology dates back to his time in the Bush administration. In 2005, Homeland Security ordered the government’s first batch of the scanners — five from California-based Rapiscan Systems.
In the summer, TSA purchased 150 machines from Rapiscan with $25 million in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds.
if they’re going to so be this strict about rules and protocol, they damn well better be as strict about hiring and properly training personnel……so we don’t read articles about TSA security stealing (like the newark airport one)
Good luck with that. Look at a Job description for a TSA screening agent on USAjobs. All you need is a high school diploma and the ability to focus.
I have a solution to all this stuff. Let’s just be naked, all the time. Well…unless it’s cold. But in airports there is heat. =D I don’t give a fark if the full body scanners ‘see’ my naked body. Whatever. Get over yourself.
I have a solution to all this stuff. Let’s just be naked, all the time. Well…unless it’s cold. But in airports there is heat. =D I don’t give a fark if the full body scanners ‘see’ my naked body. Whatever. Get over yourself.
No need to be naked. Boobs on JumboTrons outside the airport.
http://www.alarabiya.net/articles/2010/11/13/125974.html
Fine, just don’t bitch about having to look at the naked bodies of people you find unattractive.
So, I have got a very serious question…
…if I am selected for the new “enhanced” patdown…and I get wood while being examined/groped…can I be charged for being lewd and lascivious?
My biggest problem is that there is no minimum age for them to take a nude picture of you in the US (and possibly store it forever) Imagine telling you children later in life “Oh hey honey, by the way- the Government probably has a nude picture of you as a small child.”
Yes, I’m sure that the government is storing all the pictures they take using the backscatter indefinitely, especially children.
Good luck with your profits airlines. You have no one but yourselves (and terrorists) to blame. I’m all for good security, however what the TSA is doing is not good security.
Maybe the terrorists will stop hating us now. After all, they hate us for our freedoms.
I usually go to a conference for work every year. It’s budget time, and I’m not even going to budget for it.
Ok, here’s the case they reference: http://caselaw.findlaw.com/us-9th-circuit/1265662.html
Here’s a relevant piece of information the TSA is conveniently forgetting:
“Like the Third Circuit, we find these search procedures to be minimally intrusive.   See Hartwell, 436 F.3d at 180(holding similar search procedures to be “minimally intrusive,†explaining that the procedures are “well-tailored to protect personal privacy, escalating in invasiveness only after a lower level of screening disclosed a reason to conduct a more probing searchâ€).”
In that case, Aukai had “No ID” on his boarding pass, meaning he did not provide a government issued ID when he purchased his ticket, and TSA Regs initiate a secondary screening BECAUSE of this fact. In the recent case at SAN, there was no reason to escalate the screening, but they wanted to submit him to more stringent screening regardless. That no longer makes it “minimally intrusive” per the Third Circuit ruling that the Ninth Circuit ruling relied on, that the TSA now relies on.
I have a serious problem with this. And I wonder if you’re subjected to these measures coming in from overseas now, which is where our bombs seem to have been flying in from.
Thank you for finding the case in question. I’m nonplussed that consumerist didn’t cite their source of quotation, I presume it was CNN. But I was most interested in finding the case cited, and you provided it.
Another question… provided the feds try to slap you with a civil penalty, can you get a jury trial in district court? That could put an end to these shenanigans if juries won’t award the penalty.
What do you mean you refuse to cede your civil rights? You’re a guilty terrorist until proven innocent, foolish American…
Reason number #178 to not support passenger air travel in its current incarnation.
I’m glad I’m not a pilot. My bum would hurt if I had to assume a goatse pose before each flight.
Do these TSA’s have to go through the scanners each day themselves and get the Grope Down? What makes them think none of them can be a potential terrorist? These guys have access to the whole airport. Sleeper Cells are just that, sleepers, terrorisst who have blended in and are waiting for activation.
Just wait till they decide they need to have body cavity searches.
Exactly. This is the logical next step (maybe logical next-next step, but you get my drift.) The next step after that is to immobilize all passengers until arriving at their destination. Carbonite anyone?
I think any civil case about being required to scan and then refusing to fly from there would be thrown out. If you’re there, and then you refuse all “enhanced” scanning methods, and then subsequently decide not to fly at all, you shouldn’t face a civil suit. Any consumer should have the right to back out on a service not yet given.
Neither I nor anyone in my family will be flying until this changes drastically. For business me and my developers will be telecommuting from this point forth.
This appears to be the CNN source for the quote. http://www.cnn.com/2010/TRAVEL/11/15/california.airport.security/index.html
The beauty of that CNN article is that the TSA spokesperson that says that the scans are perfectly safe also says that the machines can’t save the images. Something already proven to be a bold faced lie that the TSA now admits to.
So, if my understanding is correct, at present you go through a metal detector, and then through a separate porno-scanner. You have the option to opt-out of the porno-scanner. But what happens when, for the sake of efficiency, whatever, they collapse the two separate scanners into one? I don’t believe you can opt out of the metal detector, and at that point the TSA will say that you have no other option than to go through the scanner.
How about yes, but I’m going to opt out of the scan, cause at least I’m making the agent uncomfortable too.
but my wang isn’t big enough to be seen by everybody….
If I see the TSA create another item of child pornography or molest a child by squeezing their breasts and crotch, I’m sending that “agent” molester to the morgue.
This is why I’ll only fly if its more than a day’s worth of driving… I’ve found that anything less than about a 6-hour drive comes to a wash when compared to the “time savings” of flying when you consider the total time spent getting to the airport, dealing with check-in, dealing with security, the actual flight (unfortunately this is often the most pleasant part), de-planing (easily the second worst part), waiting for luggage (if it made it), and finally getting your rental car. I’d rather just pick-up a rental car and hit the road (I like making a road-trip in a new car and putting the mileage on someone else’s car) avoiding all the airport hassle.
Ugh, this goes too far. The TSA (under the DHS) is treating us like criminals with these new highly invasive policies. What about the Fourth Amendment?
I understand everyone’s frustration with all of this, but 55% voted “final straw”. I highly doubt we’ll suddenly see a significant drop in passenger volume anytime soon.
I was already very down on flying due to the TSA’s already-existing fake security bullshit. This is the kind of thing that insures that I will not fly until the TSA is disbanded.
The TSA realizes that the WHOLE world is living in a post-9/11 society, right? Yet people fly out of all kinds of other countries without being stripped down & felt up as a requirement to board a flight.
USA: ur doin it wrong
that’s because we’re doing it for the security lobbyists
I will not be a subject for TSA porno nor will I submit to sexual molestation. Unless we all protest, 1984 is here!
Lets all go to the airports for screening, but make sure to pack something weird in your pants.
Refuse the scan so they have to give you a pat down. Cover your pants with something sticky or slimy and put a large squishy odd shaped item in your underwear.
For those of you feeling adventurous or dastardly get one of the dentata devices from Africa for your cavity search. (it’s the thing women put in their uh special place that has barbed spikes used as a rape deterrent) .
If they get harassed like this enough it’s bound to send a message that we won’t stand for their abuse, plus it could be a bunch of fun.
“The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.”
Enough said…
One thing that always struck me about airports is that the terrorist doesn’t have to get past security and get on a plane to cause mayhem. Just being in a long line before security with lots and lots of people waiting there… just detonate themselves there will cause just as much problems as taking down a plane.
I would think even more as then it’s proven that security is just a fallacy.
—- Malo Periculosam Libertatem Quam Quietum Servitium
one thing i’ve always wondered – after you pass the first screener – who looks at your boarding pass – they say to go ahead and put away your ID.
then you get to the conveyor belt, and they say to put your wallet through the scanner with your luggage.
i always hold onto my ID and carry it.
is that allowed under the latest iteration of “dystopianism for dummies?”
i ask because i have this kafka-esque vision of being pulled away – with my “self” away from me – and then having some creepy event happen because i’ve let “my papers” off of my person.
I wonder what they’d do if all of a sudden someone started sending out moans and groans of pleasure…? I can see it now, as they run their hands over someone’s body, the person being “frisked” starts running their hands over their own body and rolling their eyes, breathing heavier and asking the “frisker” to frisk here, and here, and over there and make it harder?
Sort of that scene from “When Harry Met Sally.”
http://www.newser.com/story/105351/tsa-pats-down-3-year-old.html
Want to fly from my home in the US 6500 miles to my home in South Korea is not “probably cause”. I am a citizen of the world and not a prisoner of the United States or anywhere else.
Wanting to fly from my home in the US 6500 miles to my home in South Korea is not “probable cause”. I am a citizen of the world and not a prisoner of the United States or anywhere else.
This type of stuff is really disheartening. I’m studying for an Aerospace Engineering degree, and now I wonder why I’m in the field; I certainly don’t want to fly anymore. Why bother making airplanes better if the TSA is just going to, well, TSA all over everything?
For goodness sake, what’s next?
Outrage is good! I’m not crazy about the radiation, but kind of apathetic about the process overall. Sounds crazy, right?
Honestly, I get ogled on the street every damn day. Sometimes men even decide to express their opinions vociferously. If I’m sardined on public transportation I might get an extra surprise…and I don’t even get the reassurance of safety in exchange!
But yeah, I look forward to the day that everyone gets just as angry about what women have been dealing with forever. TSA “harassment” is also only a small dose of the violation some women feel when strangers express certain opinions about that other pesky issue involving freedom and one’s body…
The terrorists are winning, as we lose our freedoms and rights to a Gestapo like TSA.
I bet some wise crakers are going to place mouse traps, sharp objects, superglue, or some painful trap for the sexual predators employed by the TSA.
To have a choice of high energy ionizing radiation cooking your testicles, or the hand of a pervert squeezing them leaves no choice. The incompetence and arrogance of the head of Homeland Security is insight into Obamas motives. Picture Obama in an SS uniform with a Hitler Mustache, posing in front of the new scanners—-and Napalitano dressed as Nurse Diesel. Get the picture now.
We have to throw the perverted fascists out now-Starting with Obama and Nurse Diesel. The Constitutional rights we are entitled to are meaningless to the Obama fascists.
Glenn Beck? Who let you in? By the way, please tell me that you’re aware of how bad the TSA was during Bush’s presidency. Obama did not start this.
Welcome to the 21st Century… The terrorist have won. The corporations have won. Everything we say and do is monitored. Submission = Freedom. Intrusion = Liberty. To have Peace, we must have War. Totalitarianism is now. With every new generation, new means of oppression are introduced. New generations know little of history and the true meaning of freedom, therefore they see this as normal.
You thought China was bad? You just wait, this is but the tip of the iceberg.
The new generations will see this as normal.
This is why the government institutes these policies one by one first by planting the seed with press releases, leaked stories and ‘tests’. Then with full implementation/deployment the public must endure the bureaucratic whims of cya keep me in power policy. Corporations do much the same with their employees and customers.
The public has a short memory. People seem to forget being treated like a criminal for forgetting to remove things like their nail clippers or from getting to the airport 15 minutes before departure to arriving 2 hours before departure.
Little by little, step by step we will become narcissistic bubble boys & girls or a police state. Yes it can happen to YOU.
That ninth circuit ruling was in 2007, and did not contemplate the new, universal backscatter technology scans, essentially a naked scan that is invasive and included ionizing radiation, if in a low dose, with the only alternative contact by a government agent groping breasts and genitals.
In other words, I think the court erred then; but I do not believe that this ruling can apply to a universally applied search of passengers under no particular suspicion, just because they have purchased a ticket and appeared at the airport.
Unless there is cause to suspect wrongdoing, passengers should be free to leave after changing their mind about being “pornoscanned” with ionizing radiation, or being subject to groping of private parts; especially if passenger is under care of someone – ie. minor or elderly .
The ruling only contemplated less invasive searches, or searches where there was cause for suspicion.
That ninth circuit ruling was in 2007, and did not contemplate the new, universal backscatter technology scans, essentially a naked scan that is invasive and included ionizing radiation, if in a low dose, with the only alternative contact by a government agent groping breasts and genitals.
In other words, I think the court erred then; but I do not believe that this ruling can apply to a universally applied search of passengers under no particular suspicion, just because they have purchased a ticket and appeared at the airport.
Unless there is cause to suspect wrongdoing, passengers should be free to leave after changing their mind about being “pornoscanned” with ionizing radiation, or being subject to groping of private parts; especially if passenger is under care of someone – ie. minor or elderly .
The ruling only contemplated less invasive searches, or searches where there was cause for suspicion.
My take on this is simple – offer an alternate plane for everyone who doesn’t want to experience any screening/body pat down. Tell them “Here you go – now do you REALLY want to fly with 150 other people who haven’t had any security screening either?”
I’d do it. The odds of someone trying to do something to/with the plane are astronomically low.
I’d fly on that plane in a second.
This Country is going to hell in a hand-basket with this! They already one. Look what it’s done to us!! Does anyone give a shit, or are you just sheep tolerating this plan? Today they safe it’s safe to be scanned, but what in 20 years after radiation studies? They are already lying to us about saving the images, too. We’re a paranoid, self-destructing from the inside-out society. Who really won this war, anyway? I sure don’t have more rights, I have less!
I live in Australia and I would love to visit the US for a vacation, but quite frankly all TSA Security theatre has permanently turned me off the idea of ever visiting the US. Tomorrow I fly out to ina single week thoroughly enjoying myself. How many Hundreds of Millions of international tourist dollars are the TSA depriving American businesses of? I would suggest quite a lot, which is a bad thing considering how much the US economy could use Tourist dollars like mine.
Okay, I can understand not being able to fly. Sounds like reasonable consequences for not being screened. But charged with a crime? Wait, isn’t that an unlawful search? If the person refuses to fly, there’s no just cause to search them. Fuck you, TSA.
Yes lets do the scans so that we can feel safe but not be any safer >> how fun!!!
I flew in September and they told me that they were taking custody of my 2 year old away from me and I could not touch him or talk to him while they patted both me and him down. I have refused to fly since then so I hope changes are really made.
T.S.A. – Thugs and Sex Addicts
And still, the majority of containers aren’t checked. Business trumps safety every time.
IF a person decides not to fly because of airport screening and is not on the no fly list(BUT PROBABLY WILL BE ) and decides to take other transportation, then they are not a danger to other flying passengers. So where do the civil penalties come in. This is pure BS and should not be allowed. To many instances of non professional actions by TSA employees have been recorded by the public and brought to the consumers attention about abuse of power within TSA. NO civil penalties for TSA from non flying customers because of screening…. This is like saying that If I bought a ticket and decided to drive and cashed in my ticket that I would be paying civil penalties for deciding to drive…..