Originally Posted by
FliesWay2Much
...except that the motivation in both cases is based on you (and the rest of us) assumed to be a threat to national security because we showed up at the airport to catch our flight.
Yes, but the former could just as easily be a TSO exercising his/her First Amendment rights as anything else and prohibiting them from engaging in casual conversation (from which you have the right to abstain) could be construed as a violation of their right to free speech.