Originally Posted by
InkUnderNails
And what is the constitutional justification or exception for an administrative search of ones physical person?
I know the courts have found that an administrative search is acceptable. They did that back in 1967 and it applied to searches of buildings for code violations and such. I also know that after 9/11 the TSA got permission for increased administrative searches of stuff going on the aircraft. But, I could not find a court decision or legislative action that extended the administrative search to ones body.
I readily admit I am not a legal expert, but I try to research these matters. Please inform me.
United States v. Aukai is a case in which the facts include searching of a passenger's body. However, the breadth of the search and how it more often occurs randomly with WBI and other procedures has not been litigated as far as I know. The following quote is the standard for the extent of administrative searches:
Although the constitutionality of airport screening searches is not dependent on consent, the scope of such searches is not limitless. A particular airport security screening search is constitutionally reasonable provided that it “is no more extensive nor intensive than necessary, in the light of current technology, to detect the presence of weapons or explosives [ ][and] that it is confined in good faith to that purpose.” Davis, 482 F.2d at 913.
Under current TSA regulations and procedures, that election [to submit to the administrative search] occurs when a prospective passenger walks through the magnetometer or places items on the conveyor belt of the x-ray machine. The Government asserted during oral argument that regulations and procedures tying this election to an earlier point in time, i.e., entering the airport screening line or the presentation of a boarding pass and I.D. to a TSA officer, would pass constitutional muster. Changes in technology or gains in knowledge as to terrorist operations may prompt the TSA or its successors to claim the need for recognition of danger at an earlier point in the boarding process.
I hadn't focused on this before. If the TSA changes the point in time for consenting to an administrative search, that would be chilling.