Originally Posted by
Majuki
It depends. You can refuse the ETD before the TDC (where you submit the "papers, please"). There was a court case that said you can still be subject to civil penalties if you refuse the screening process after it's been started. This was because someone could theoretically test the limits and then walk away at a critical time in the screening process. Of course, this court case was long before the days of widespread patdowns, the war on water and NoS.
That being that, has anyone ever been fined from walking away? I don't think anything happened to the "If you touch my junk..." guy after he walked away.
Nothing happened to John Tyner, the “don’t touch my junk” guy. I believe he even received a phone call for someone at the TSA telling him they will not fine him for refusing to comply when he was escorted out of the checkpoint, he even stood up to a TSA suit who threatened him with fines if he didn’t come back to the screening area to complete the screening process when he already was back in the non secure part of the terminal leaving the airport.
The Alaska State Senator who refused further secondary screening when the ATI detected an anomaly in her breast area, which she said was caused by recent surgery for breast cancer. She too was escorted out of the airport and also has not been fined by the TSA.
In both cases, the media had picked up these stories and if the TSA had attempted to fine them, I am sure the media would have publicly destroyed the TSA’s already low creditability.
The threat of $11,000 fines are the TSA’s way to force people to comply with their abusive and unconstitutional searches. The TSA knows that if they do fine someone $11,000 and the person appeals the fine after the TSA kangaroo court upholds the fine, the courts might just rule the fine as excessive and force the TSA to drop the fine.
We all know the TSA is afraid of the courts, which is the reason they will always settle out of court if they cannot get the lawsuit dismissed, because this is the only way the TSA will be reined in, by court orders and the longer the TSA manages to stay away from court rulings, the longer this abuse will continue.
Mr. Elliott