Originally Posted by
Djlawman
Courts have ruled that you are not free to pack up your stuff and try to leave to avoid screening, once you have entered into the screening. That would simply enable terrorists, or others, to gauge the effectiveness of various tactics of trying to beat the screening system. Thus, once you have entered the screening, you cannot simply pack up your stuff and return to the public side of the airport.
See the 9th Circuit Aukai case
http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/data2/...h/0410226p.pdf
My apologies
triehle, I developed a hypothetical to narrowly contemplate (
too narrowly, perhaps?) the subject of an arrest for "assault" vs "interference" I was replying to and wrote about that without considering what was actually defined as the "sterile" area
by the TSA. In that regard, my hypothetical is clearly flawed. Your follow on post should not be taken as a negative reflection on you but rather my approach there. Again, my apologies.
Djlawman is clearly correct, the "sterile area" is secretly defined by the TSA as seen in the
Aukai decision where it includes this reference:
49 C.F.R. 1540.5. The secured area includes the “sterile area,” which “means [the] portion of an airport defined in the [TSA] airport security program that provides passengers access to boarding aircraft and to which the access generally is controlled by TSA . . . through the screening of persons and property.” Because of security concerns, the Government has not made public the details of “airport security programs.” See 49 U.S.C. 114(s); 49 C.F.R. 1520.5. Hence, (the court) does not speculate on how far such “sterile” and “secured” areas extend from the airplane boarding gate to the street door. Suffice it to say that such “secured area” extends at least as far as the point at which a prospective passenger places hand luggage on a conveyor belt for inspection.. (emphasis mine)
Where I concluded that scenario predicated on the idea that the "sterile area" was after "secondary" in that analysis as I wrote...
Originally Posted by
rustyhaight
(snip) ...BUT, in the "explanation in a calm, low tone and close the bag, I'm leaving the checkpoint now" approach outlined above, say we can eliminate assault, and if the screener's duty is to check me and my stuff before allowing admission to the sterile area, and what I told him is that I no longer want to go into the sterile area, I want to go back "outside" to talk to the airline people, is not his job under 1540.107 over and, if so, how can I be "interfering?" (snip) ... I think, if handled right, you close your bag and leave the checkpoint, moving away from the sterile area and they have no authority to stop you and no authority to hold your bag. They have no "authority" at that point apart from perhaps letting the nearest LEO know what happened and then, again we agree, that LEO can use discretion and make the call, THEN the LEO has discretion to leave his post at the checkpoint and go conduct your field interview.
...my hypothetical was clearly wrong and I had moved beyond my original intent. It's clear at that point they'd call over the LEO right away and he would likely know how the TSA defined the sterile area at that airport and would, shall we say, "explain that to you..."
My error, my apologies.