Originally Posted by
pmocek
Therein lies the crux of the issue. In your hypothetical situation, the checkpoint is still good for keeping dangerous items off airplanes -- its stated purpose and the reason for which we allow these otherwise unconsitutional searches at airports -- but it's not so good for conducting an unconstitutional dragnet operation. The latter is what you want, isn't it?
I think you may be missing the original point here. If someone can walk away from a search at a TSA checkpoint, a malicious group can simply keep testing the checkpoint using different methods of concealment until one works. In this way they can, without penalty, learn how to bring some dangerous item on a plane (such as a gun or 4 ounce bottle of shampoo), and then actually do it.
If you assume the TSA's approach to security is fundamentally reasonable (ha ha) then this line of reasoning does have merit.