It all began, Ouriel said, when she declined to go through the new body scanner Sunday night. Besides being worried about possible radiation, "I find it degrading," she said of the machines, which generate sometimes graphic images of bodies. She also said she was suspicious when the male TSA agent "seemed to be picking out young females" to go through the scanner rather than the metal detector.

Told she would have to undergo a pat-down, she declined that too after she said she saw an agent "grab" the crotch of a man being patted down ahead of her. Having declined both screenings, she was told she couldn't fly and was sent to baggage claim to collect her luggage. She says forgot to retrieve her driver's license, which the TSA had taken to file a report, and later couldn't find it.