U.S. Department of Homeland Security
601 South 12tk Street
Arlington, VA 20598


Transportation
Security
Administration

August 2, 2010

Via E-Mail



Re: OTSSO-IO-0020

Dear Mr. ,

Thank you for contacting the Transportation Security Administration's (TSA's) Office of Civil Rights and Liberties. Your concern, as stated in your April 2, 2010 e-mail letter, is that TSA, through the TSA Blog, curtailed your First Amendment freedom of speech rights by deleting two of your posted comments. You felt that those comments fell under the category of"protected political speech" and that the TSA Blog should not have been able to delete those comments.

You requested an inquiry into the deletion of the comments.

The Office ofCivil Rights and Liberties reviewed this concern. The comments you referenced were deleted pursuant to TSA's established Comment Policy. This policy is available for your review on our website at: http://blog.tsa.gov/200S/0l/comment-policy.html. Based on our review, it appears that the deletion ofthe comments from the TSA Blog comports with the
established TSA Comment Policy. Further, based on our assessment, it appears that such action does not constitute an infringement of the First Amendment freedom ofspeech.

Thank you for bringing this matter to our attention and for giving us the opportunity to respond.

Sincerely,

4(~


Stephanie Stoltzfus

Director
Office of Traveler, Specialized Screening & Outreach
Office of Civil Rights and Liberties