2 ms·

IANAL, but I'm worried that a defense attorney could fight this on the wording of point 2: > the TSA violates the Fourth Amendment by detaining travelers and t

IANAL, but I'm worried that a defense attorney could fight this on the wording of point 2: > the TSA violates the Fourth Amendment by detaining travelers and their cash without reasonable suspicion of criminality Skinner v. Railway Labor Executives Association[1] was the Supreme Court case that set precedent for random drug testing of public employees in sensitive positions, which would otherwise also be a fourth amendment violation. It doesn't seem like much of a stretch to say that precedent applies just as well (in the general sense) to searches/detainment of airline passengers in the name of public safety. The defense would need to sweep the fact the money in this particular case was "detained" (ahem, stolen) for six months (as opposed to, like, one minute to check it for hazards) under the rug, but since this is a class action lawsuit rather than a lawsuit about this particular incident, isn't that detail irrelevant to the class action suit? [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skinner_v._Railway_Labor_Executives_Ass%27n https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skinner_v._Railway_Labor_Execu...

betterunix2 6y ago
The issue I see as far as civil rights goes is that the TSA reports evidence of crimes, real or imagined, to law enforcement. The TSA is allowed to perform invasive, non-optional searches of the traveling public that no law enforcement agency could perform; that should leave no room for any "cooperation" with law enforcement. Right now we have a back door that law enforcement agencies can use to avoid meeting the legal requirements for searching a person or their belongings: relying on a non-law-enforcement agency that follows a completely different set of rules. To put it another way, the reason we allow drug tests of railroad workers is to ensure employees are sober when they are operating dangerous equipment. The reason we allow the TSA to search people and their belongings is to prevent terrorism. In neither case should there be any form of "cooperation" with law enforcement agencies based on a search that the law enforcement agency itself could not have performed.
- salawat 6y ago
  Ironically, this is the same reason law enforcement has to jump through extra hoops to get IRS data. If that financial data were shared without protections, no one would declare anything. Which hamstrings the capability of the service to operate. The same logic should be applied to TSA. If they must violate the 4th Amendment to keep airlines able to do business, they should not be able to tag in law enforcement, and more importantly, they should not be acting as an extension of DEA or Customs. It should be strictly limited to disarmament/destructive device detection. But lets be honest with ourselves, That is too sane and principled to ever be executed on.

betterunix2 6y ago

The issue I see as far as civil rights goes is that the TSA reports evidence of crimes, real or imagined, to law enforcement. The TSA is allowed to perform invasive, non-optional searches of the traveling public that no law enforcement agency could perform; that should leave no room for any "cooperation" with law enforcement. Right now we have a back door that law enforcement agencies can use to avoid meeting the legal requirements for searching a person or their belongings: relying on a non-law-enforcement agency that follows a completely different set of rules. To put it another way, the reason we allow drug tests of railroad workers is to ensure employees are sober when they are operating dangerous equipment. The reason we allow the TSA to search people and their belongings is to prevent terrorism. In neither case should there be any form of "cooperation" with law enforcement agencies based on a search that the law enforcement agency itself could not have performed.

salawat 6y ago
Ironically, this is the same reason law enforcement has to jump through extra hoops to get IRS data. If that financial data were shared without protections, no one would declare anything. Which hamstrings the capability of the service to operate. The same logic should be applied to TSA. If they must violate the 4th Amendment to keep airlines able to do business, they should not be able to tag in law enforcement, and more importantly, they should not be acting as an extension of DEA or Customs. It should be strictly limited to disarmament/destructive device detection. But lets be honest with ourselves, That is too sane and principled to ever be executed on.