GUWonder

As Passover begins tonight and Good Friday is today -- enjoy the holidays -- I am not about to create more work to bounce the following Supreme Court decision off my personal acquaintances to discuss all the implications of interest to me; however, I am not beyond asking FTers about what they think may be the implications for passengers at US airports of the decision mentioned in the following article:

http://news.yahoo.com/strip-searches...101205560.html

Being arrested, despite not having violated the law being used to arrest, and then strip-searched for even minor offences is apparently acceptable to the majority of the current US Supreme Court.

I can't see this decision being good for passengers at US airports who end up arrested on false charges, even claimed minor offences.

Global_Hi_Flyer

Forget arrests.

The key issue was the need to maintain security of a closed area (prison), so folks entering to be placed in the prison were strip searched (to keep contraband out).

Replace the word "prison" in my statement with "airport sterile area", and a certain agency might try and use this as precedent. At the very least, this decision provides a roadmap for the TSA to oppose any lawsuit against the strip-search machines.

GUWonder

Excellent point.

It seems like the TSA may have too many friends on the Supreme Court.

How many of the Supreme Court Justices travel without an armed escort when using US airports (and thus get a relative free pass)? And of those who may not travel with armed escorts when using a US airport, will they all get the PreCheck LLL benefits? Not good for America.

... so substitute "airport sterile area" or "airplane" for "detention center" and there you have it.

Caradoc

It's probably more accurate to say the TSA has too many friends, and just leave it at that.

You want to go where?

My understanding is most, if not all of them travel without armed escorts. They travel without escorts, period - unless they are traveling on business and bring a clerk or two with them.

FliesWay2Much

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (BlackBerry; U; BlackBerry 9650; en-US) AppleWebKit/534.8+ (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/6.0.0.719 Mobile Safari/534.8+)

I suspect there's nothing to prevent airport cops from arresting a passenger for looking cross-eyed at a clerk and, as punishment, being strip-searched before thrown into the holding cell at the airport.

WillCAD

And herein lies the heart of the problem - SCOTUS, along with many lesser courts, seem to be of the overwhelming mindset today that the interests, needs, and rights of the government trump those of the People.

This is exactly the kind of thing that started the American Revolution. This is exactly the kind of thing that the Constitution was written, and quickly Amended, to prevent. This is exactly the situation the Colonies found themselves in 232 years ago when they decided that armed insurrection was the only way to preserve individual liberty. Decisions like this one, and the recent one in which they said that a person doesn't have a right to remain silent upon arrest unless he SAYS he wants to remain silent, and various federral courts' buck-passing of lawsuits against TSA's abuse of power, continue to quickly erode American rights and freedoms at a rate not seen since Germany in the 1930s.

I have a friend who has been saying for years that situations like this will soon lead to violent uprisings in the United States, as people who are tired of being stomped on by their government get pushed just a little too far by higher taxes, more complex and confusing laws, greater police powers, constant government intrusion into our private lives, continuous policies which defy the overwhelming majority opinion, and above all, corruption and graft in government at all levels. Whenever he says something to that effect, I dismiss it out of hand. But I find myself looking at the lessons of history and wondering if he could actually be right - might the government push the People too far and set off a second American Revolution?

Considering how much the rest of the world seems to hate us, I'd say it's about 50/50 whether we'll rebel first or the rest of the world will gang up on us like we all did on the Nazis.

Wally Bird

I can't be bothered to search, but this has already happened more than once to airport 'criminals'. The SC just legitimized it (as if airport cops really cared one way or the other).

GUWonder

From what I've been around to observe, they all have had armed escorts at some point; at least sometimes when not traveling on business.

Some of the SCOTUS Justices have received death threats and been protected for that reason. I haven't paid that much attention since then-Justice Souter got assaulted while jogging in DC but I doubt that they have armed escorts less than even before that incident.

The era of the US being a supposed bastion of liberty and freedom seems to be history. Our airports are a sign of the times, as is this SCOTUS ruling.

MAMOHT

If the current regime stays for another term there will be more freedom in Iran.

sbrower

They used to travel without marshalls. Since the Souter incident, they travel (at least sometimes) with a gaggle of marshalls. (One year at the ABA meeting I spoke to Justice Breyer, the two of us alone. Two years later, at the ABA meeting, he had at least 4 marshalls with him.) I suspect (but don't know) that after Justice Breyer was the subject of an armed robbery on his recent vacation, it got worse.

clrankin

I'll be the first to say that Obama has been no walk in the park and has done nothing to earn a second term. I'll likely be writing in my vote for Ron Paul this year to send a message - unless it's a close race between Obama and whomever the Republican candidate will be (likely Romney at this point). I'd really like to vote for Ron Paul, but it's not worth another 4 years of Obama to do that.

I'll also be the first to say that the previous administration is what got us into this mess. They were responsible for the creation of DHS and TSA as irresponsible, ill-planned knee-jerk reactions to a horrific event that shocked the country. 9/11 took us by surprise and was bad - no doubt - but it didn't need to be answered with the creation of agencies whose sole intent is to find conspiracy and plots where none exist, and protect us from non-existent threats.

Billions of dollars wasted - money that could have been used to improve our nation's education systems, rebuild an aging infrastructure, help small and medium sized businesses become more competitive, pay down our debt, or just given back to us to use as we pleased.

The problem isn't with a particular person or a particular party. It's with greed and graft and corruption and lunacy. Why else is Accenture getting nearly a quarter of a billion dollars to help think of new ways to annoy the travelling public? Why else did another consulting firm get paid millions of dollars to develop a system of checking passenger names that can be defeated by booking a ticket using a fake name, printing a boarding pass from home to a PDF, and spending 5 minutes with Photoshop to change the name on the ticket?

And now the Supreme Court gets in on the action by essentially telling the American public that a group of largely uneducated, power tripping thugs can strip search them whenever they please. I wonder what the money trail looks like on this decision.

GUWonder

When it comes to airport "security", those running for office are not the problem -- the problem is the general public that is so ignorant, apathetic and/or paranoid that just about anything the TSA wants the TSA gets -- including strip-searching passengers.

tcm

Some disturbing reading regarding the latest strip-search decision:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisf...itical-control

bocastephen

Your friend grossly underestimates how lazy and dumb much of the US voting population is. Dubya Bush pushed us right to the edge years ago, and much of the country did nothing but whine or yawn. If McCain wasn't an out-of-touch old gasbag and Obama didn't latch onto Oprah, our current situation might be even worse....and even so, look at our current situation - we elected someone who promised major change, and delivered none of it (made some things actually worse).

Personally I'm not getting stripped searched unless they Tase me first, cuff me, then pull down my pants while unconscious, but that's me. Most people would just drop their pants on command (while feigning outrage at the ruling), and that in a nutshell is what's wrong with our country. Lots of feigned outrage, and absolutely no action.