Originally Posted by
flavorflav
I suspect there's some trolling going on here - or at least a lot of tough-guy-behind-a-keyboard talk mixed in with Internet Lawyer talk.
I know two things about the lines of authority in an airport: 1. They're complicated. 2. The people wearing maroon coats and managing line access did not wander in and take their posts on their own. They were hired by someone in a position of authority (the airport, the airline, a contractor, the TSA, whoever) and directed to stand in a spot and do a job.
Regardless of how well they're doing the job (or how poorly they're paid, or what country they're from, or their command of English, characteristics that seem to draw a disproportionate amount of attention from some FTers) they have been granted a certain amount of authority by someone else in a position to be granting authority, e.g. someone with more juice than you or I.
So I discourage flyers from adopting the "I don't have to listen to those maroon coats, I just pretend I don't hear them and walk on by" attitude. That may have worked once or twice or 10 times in your past, but inevitably it's going to end with you getting detained and publicly lectured by a cop (or group of cops) about how the rules indeed apply to you, too, despite your elite status or F ticket or annual spend. If you stick by your guns and lip off about how stupid airport employees, TSA workers, and police officers are, maybe you'll get yourself on a triple top secret list that you can't get yourself off of.
I'm not suggesting that we be a nation of sheep. I am suggesting that willfully ignoring certain airport employees with clearly delegated authority is excessively confrontational and asking for trouble.
Hi Flav,
No trolls here, just folks enjoying a good discussion with some nice and polite folks.
First, I understand your point on not starting anything with the line guards as it could easily lead to a missed flight and even a possible arrest. I agree and do not encourage folks to generally do that. What I am saying is that the access control rules are simply an overreach of authority -- at least in airports which use TSA which is a federal agency (not all use it) - and that overreach would not stand if challenged. I am not an internet tough guy, to be sure. But I do believe in upholding the law. Keep in mind that I have been elite and entitled to priority access for the past 10 years and have enjoyed it. But I have ignored the rules several times by ignoring the "checkers" (in fact I had to ignore them b/c I actually HAD a priority boarding pass so if I did let the see it they wouldn't have tried to stop me! Naturally I did this only when I had fully refundable tickets and was at the airport several hours ahead of time, and I was challenged. But in the end, the TSA supervisor specifically backed me and cited the very point I was making above.
Keep in mind, an organization merely putting someone in a position of authority does not necessarily mean that it is a valid grant of authority that the employees are exercising. As I recall, there were a number of bus drivers who had state and locally granted authority to determine priority seating on busses a few years back. Some other folks decided that federal law pre-empted that claim of authority. The local cops backed the local rules. The federal courts saw it differently.
Bottom line: Nobody but the federal government has the authority to authorize restrictions or other access controls on federal services provided to the public. That is longstanding policy and is undisputed. '
Imagine this in other contexts. What if the local county which hosts the main road leading into Yellowstone Park went ahead and created special access lines at the front gate of the Park with local businesses, restaurants and hotels being able to send folks to the front of the line as tokens of appreciation for supporting. Just put a couple of guys out there with red jackets and with signs and instructions from the local county -- thereby making the unfavored class of non-local business clients wait much longer.
It's the exact same thing. Not permissible unless the federal agency specifically allows it. TSA simply has not done so.
Now, it is absolutely true that he airport authority could create a SEPARATE checkpoint, one which does not restrict access to a federally provided service like TSA screening area, and grant premium access there to whomever they wish. No doubt at all that the local authorities or airport owners could do so if they chose and it would be a valid exercise of authority. But without sign-off from the feds, they cannot restrict access to the federal services provided by TSA without explicit federal authorization -- an authorization which has never been granted.