Originally Posted by Dovster

Ron, here is where you and I part ways.

Let's follow the train of logic regarding the TSA's questioning money being carried.

1. The Constitution prohibits unreasonable searches and guarantees each of us the right to remain silent.

2. The TSA was established to make air travel safe. That is its only purpose.

3. No one is required to subject himself to an inspection but he waives that right in order to enter the sterile area. This is logical because it is the only way that the TSA can check to see if he is carrying anything with him that can endanger air travel.

4. The TSA screener is only to look for dangerous materials. Of course, if in the course of his inspection, he happens to see something which is either in itself illegal or evidence of a crime, he has the obligation to report it to LEOs. In this, he is in the same position as a police officer who pulls me over for speeding and sees hand grenades on the back seat of my car.

5. That same police officer, seeing nothing incriminating in my car, has no right to tell me to open the trunk so that he can look inside. That would be a violation of my Constitutional rights.

6. A TSA screener, having seen nothing illegal (and cash is not illegal) has no right to require me to allow him to count it or insist that I tell him how much I have with me. Should he call an LEO, that LEO also has no right to demand to know how much money I have with me -- unless he knows that I am leaving the country, or have just entered it, and that the money is obviously above the $10,000 limit (such as a suitcase full of large bills). In that case, he would have probable cause to count the money and ascertain whether or not I have declared it on FinCen Form 105.