Man Who Exercised 1st Amendment Rights By Stripping At Airport Still Owes TSA $1K

Hey, we remember you!

Hey, we remember that beard!

Remember the man who stripped down to his birthday suit at an Oregon airport to express his First Amendment rights? We know we sure do. And while a judge said that act was totally protected by the Constitution, he’s still got a pesky $1,000 fine from the Transportation Security Administration hanging over his head. He says he’s ready to fight that, too.

While he was acquitted of any wrongdoing for his strip moves at Portland International Airport, on Tuesday he’ll be in front of a judge again to appeal the TSA’s $1,000 fine for allegedly breaking a federal rule saying passengers must not “interfere with, assault, threaten, or intimidate” TSA screeners, reports OregonLive.com.

“I’ve had this cloud hanging over my head … for months and months,” the man said of the fine, which he received a few months after he bared it all in protest of what he saw as outrageous security procedures.

The TSA isn’t talking about the fine, due to the pending nature of the case, but the man’s attorney claims the agency is going after his client because they “didn’t like to lose.”

At the time, county prosecutors charged him with violating a city law that says people can’t expose their genitalia in public and in the presence of the opposite sex. But because the man was acting in protest, a judge ruled that the nudity law doesn’t apply.

“I totally support airport screening,” the man says. “I just don’t want it to be at the expense of my constitutional rights.”

That won’t hold water during next week’s appearance, however, as the administrative judge won’t be allowed to consider the man’s former defense. The man says if he loses this go around, he’ll appeal the case in a higher court.

Man who stripped at Portland International Airport fights $1,000 fine from TSA [OregonLive]

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