<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by The Unknown Screener:
At least we agree on that. You KNOW your baggage is likely to be searched, so it is no secret. If you do not want your bag to be screened, then leave it behind or ship it seperately. </font>
We don't agree on that. I was being sarcastic, sorry that I didn't communicate well.
You are forced to submit to a search the way it is now. There is no way around it. To my mind, it is okay so long as the purpose is narrowed to security issues and anything else is completely disregarded.
<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Another example, a police officer pulls you over for speeding and asks you if he can search your trunk. He has no warrant, and no speeding offense requires a search of the trunk, so no "probable cause." If you agree and he finds that stash of yours, or that human head. </font>
This is not the same because you indeed are not forced to consent to the search under your scenario. But if you travel on an airplane, you are forcibly searched, otherwise you cannot travel.
You are forced to sign a tax return the same way. You don't "have" to sign it -- but you could wind up in jail if you don't. So you are in essence forced to sign. Since there is a strict right that you have against being forced to incriminate yourself, how is the requirement to sign a tax return under penalty of perjury reconciled with the right against self-incrimination?
It is to my thinking an identical circumstance with regard to being searched when you travel by air. Since you are "forced" to be searched, in the same way you are "Forced" to sign your tax return, the search must be narrowly focused and everything else turned up must be overlooked.