Originally Posted by ND Sol
I thought that TSO's were to be given the authority to make a decision as to allowing liquids in provided that they were tested, but no TSO really wanted to do that.
Yes and no.
There still needs to be compelling and extraordinary circumstances involved for making the decision to allow it to go. A lot of TSOs were given just enough rope to hang themselves with, since "because the passenger wanted to keep it" is neither considered compelling nor extraordinary.