Court: TSA, Not Passengers, Deserve Privacy

A federal appeals court has rejected claims by passengers and pilots that the TSA invaded their privacy and violated their rights by demanding pat-down inspections or full-body scans.

In fact, the ruling reported today by The Rutherford Institute affirms a district court ruling from Judge Henry H. Kennedy Jr., who cited a “secret” order from the TSA as the reason he rejected the cases.

The government, insisting that the “secret” order contains “sensitive security information,” has refused to make public the document outlining the procedures, according to John Whitehead of the Rutherford Institute.

Institute attorneys had argued that since the TSA “order” has remained “secret,” there has been no opportunity for the public to comment on it, and “passengers and pilots are not only being deprived of their Fourth Amendment rights, but also their due process right to a fair hearing on their challenge to the secret TSA policy.”

The cases were brought in 2010 on behalf of Adrienne Durso, a recent breast cancer survivor, who repeatedly and aggressively was groped by TSA agents in the area where she had undergone a mastectomy, even after informing agents of her condition.

Another plaintiff was Chris Daniels, a frequent business traveler, was aggressively and repeatedly touched in his genital area after initial screening showed an abnormality in his genitals that was the result of a childhood injury. Whitehead reported when Daniels asked to leave the security area and forego flying rather than submit to the intimate groping, he was told that he was not free to leave and would have to submit to the enhanced pat-down.

[link to www.wnd.com]




Last Edited by Sleeping Giant on 04/11/2012 07:59 AM