If they try to pull that one on me, they'll learn about my rights soon enough. A personal lawsuit focused at the screener for acting outside the permissible scope of services under the color of authority ought to be worth a few thousand dollars.

Forget about suing TSA - sue the screener instead. If every passenger who encountered a rude, egotistical, power-tripping screener sued (even for just a few hundred dollars) we could clog up our court system and (more importantly) make life a living hell for the screeners.