Originally Posted by
RichardKenner
Screening at the gate (for domestic flights) is very rare and the majority of it is ID checks. I've also seen checking of carry-ons. I've never seen any pat-downs at gates any time recently. And I've had very long connecting times at DFW and spend most of it walking through the terminal. That doesn't mean it never happens, but means the chances of it happening to you are extraoordinarily low.
As to what happens if you decline, signs say that you won't be allowed to fly: I doubt that it would go further than that because the legal basis for more in that situation is far shakier than declining follow-on searches at the checkpoing.
I recall a thread at least a couple of years ago dealing with gate searches. A bunch of us greybeards discussed this with a couple of screeners who used to post here as well as a couple of FT lawyers. From what I recall, what you suggested was correct, at least as we understood it:
A gate screening was a completely new screening and not a continuation of the screening at the gate. As such, your consent or non-consent started all over again. The TSA could not compel you to submit. After being determined to be a "suspicious person" because of your non-consent, and having your personal information extracted from you and recorded in an "incident report," you would be escorted out of the secure area of the airport.
We also agreed that this "new search" applied to clearing customs at an airport such as ATL and having to be searched simply to pass through the airport to go home. At that time, nobody (at least an FTer) had tried it yet. Someone successfully did this not too long ago, but not without all sorts of arrest threats and intimidation.
A couple of loose items remain from this latest TSA stunt:
1. Does an ID check at the gate constitute a new search? Can you refuse the ID check with the caveat of having to leave the secure area?
2. Nobody, as far as I know, has tried to refuse a gate screening/ID check and leave.