Originally Posted by
telloh
It is if the other passenger is saying "I am going to go berserk if he doesn't stop pressing his seat into my knees".
Just like with a hotel TV, ever case is different. And you have no more "right" to refuse a FA valid order in that case any more than you do to a hotel manager who tells you to turn the volume down.
An FA duty is to keep peace in the cabin, and he may order you to raise your seat under that duty.
No, it's not. How intimidating a polite "No, thank you" is has nothing to do with how loudly the person behind you is complaining. If you read the text of the statute you posted, 49 U.S.C. § 46504 reads:
An individual on an aircraft in the special aircraft jurisdiction of the United States who, by assaulting or intimidating a flight crew member or flight attendant of the aircraft, interferes with the performance of the duties of the member or attendant...
See US v. Naghani... an Iranian national and US resident alien who lit up a cigarette in the lavatory, but then also made threats about killing Americans. He was convicted because of the threats and the totality of his behavior, but the 9th Circuit discusses what is defined as intimidating - "conduct and words of the accused [that] would place an ordinary, reasonable person in fear" - reusing the definition from US v. Meeker (1975). The court noted "it is unlikely that the simple act of sneaking a smoke in the lavatory... could satisfy the meaning of intimidation under § 46504." (He could still be in violation of § 41706, which prohibits smoking specifically.)
If disobeying crew instructions and lighting up a cigarette isn't intimidating, it's hard to see how refusing to un-recline one's seat or turn off a reading light would be. It's much more likely that the fusspot neighbor heads down the road of assault or intimidation.
There is certainly the much more vaguely worded 14 CFR 135.120.
IANAL. Just a guy who likes to read a lot, know my rights, and argue.