If I were in any other location, where I had a legal right to be, just standing doing and saying nothing, I don't believe a cop could demand whether I had something in my pocket and force me to undergo a frisk if I refused. Or am I wrong on that?

If I'm correct on that, then apparently my rights are different in a courthouse, even after going through security. That's why I'm curious to know what the limits are, so I know if they've been overstepped. I don't believe that anyone, regardless of job title, should be so trusted that one must unquestioningly assume that everything they do is legal and proper.

But I can see why people turn into sheeple, because they know they have to appease cops and not trip their trigger for "reasonable suspicion," because cops can make one's life very difficult.

It apparently does vary. In another Virginia courthouse, we first started into the main building to look at records, where the guard told both my wife and the person ahead of her in line that they couldn't take in a cell phone, even if it was turned off.

As it happened, we were in the wrong building, and needed to go to a separate one to look at records, where cell phones were allowed and there was no search. That was unusual; most records are in the courthouse itself. Which leads to another point:

I hadn't even thought of the jury duty angle before this thread. Another admittedly less important difference is that in theory, at least, one can decide not to fly (I know, there's the right to travel, etc.--just bear with me here...), but there is no other alternative to seeing some public records.

So you either go in the building or you don't see them. But the search you have to go through isn't even for the records. It's generally set up for courtrooms, and not because people are bringing bombs or guns to kill the poor clerks in the basement who file the birth certificates.