A patdown and an MMW are both stomping on the 4th Amendment. The health concerns for MMW are zero and the privacy concerns have been largely mitigated with improved software. IMO, the question is: does the protest value of the patdown outweigh the personal inconvenience/distress caused by the patdown?

Given the fact that Scotty's primary mode of communication is ASL, I don't blame him for picking his battles. A patdown is difficult enough when the TSO has the ability to communicate easily with their victim.