FlyerTalk Forums - View Single Post - Playing "Fun with TSA" -- anyone can do it
Old Jul 14, 2010 | 11:11 pm
  #131  
RichardKenner
 
Join Date: Mar 2009
Posts: 1,972
Originally Posted by SATTSO
It was reworded in stronger words that when you find something that you think is illegal, while looking for WEI, it becomes a LEO matter.
Think is illegal or think might be illegal? The difference is key to the constitutionality here.

You have a bag check. You open the bag and you see a picture of a child having sex with an adult. Clearly illegal and there's no issue with referring it to an LEO.

But now suppose what you see is a picture of a nude child running through a sprinkler. One would hope that's not viewed as pornographic, but maybe some court would, so would you call an LEO?

How about a bag of white powder? It's probably sugar, but could potentially be cocaine. Do you call an LEO?

That second case is particularly troubling. Yes, it would be the LEO doing the search, but they only way they knew to do the search was because of the administrative search. You can make "expectation of privacy" arguments, but it's still questionable.
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