Interesting read. Here's something to put in the author's framework.
49 USC 44925 (searchable
here)
The Secretary of Homeland Security shall give a high priority to . . . deploying, at airport screening checkpoints, equipment that detects nonmetallic, chemical, biological, and radiological weapons, and explosives, in all forms, on individuals and in their personal property. . . [T]he Assistant Secretary of Homeland Security (Transportation Security Administration) shall submit to the appropriate congressional committees a strategic plan to
promote the optimal utilization and deployment of explosive detection equipment at airports to screen individuals and their personal property. Such equipment includes walk-through explosive detection portals, document scanners, shoe scanners, and
backscatter x-ray scanners. The plan may be submitted in a
classified format.
IANAL; however, in the context of the paper the NoS seems to be clearly articulated within a statutory regulation of passenger screening, the 19th century framework the author discussed. Combined with the blatant invitation in the statute to plead state secrets and that seems to make the NoS much harder to go away than the "enhanced" pat down, which seems to be located within "shall provide for the screening of all passengers" at 49 USC 44901.