Originally Posted by
Often1
You are omitting the fact that Pre-Check requires a background check and an ongoing DHS link to one's tickets on a per use basis.
While the people on FT tend to pass that background check, it is likely the case that higher risk people do not bother to apply or, when they apply and are rejected, do not whine about it on FT or elsewhere.
The arguments made here about privilege only apply if the service is available to all willing to shell out the fee. That was the argument made about "premium" lines back when those were still meaningful and it is why TSA got out of the business of policing them.
I have no idea what you're saying, but let me say this:
This isn't about privilege or egalitarianism, it's about rights and freedoms.
TSA has said, you must give up freedom to get on a plane - which means, you get to choose which of your rights is infringed upon, freedom of movement, or freedom from unnecessary search and seizure. Sure, sure, I know, the Supreme Court declared that administrative screenings are Constitutional, but the ruling also said that the screening
"does not exceed constitutional limitations provided that the screening process is no more extensive nor intensive than necessary, in the light of current technology, to detect the presence of weapons or explosives, that it is confined in good faith to that purpose, and that potential passengers may avoid the search by electing not to fly." And in my opinion, most of TSA's current screening methodologies and procedures are far more extensive and invasive than need be to find WEI; and also not confined in good faith to that purposes (since ID checks, interrogations, and examination of any printed material are obviously aimed at discovering criminal activity, not WEI). TSA also asserts that you're not allowed to stop the screening and leave the checkpoint once screening has begun, which not only constitutes an illegal detention by government actors, but negates the SCOTUS requirement that a screening be avoidable by electing not to fly in order to be Constitutional.
So we have a false choice - you may have your rights abridged in one way (illegal searches and seizures) or another way (severe restrictions on the means which facilitate the right to travel and freely associate).
Then, of course, there is PreCheck, which is merely the government offering a third false choice - voluntarily surrender one right in order to (ostensibly) reduce the violations of your other rights.
Picking White Simms over Blue Simms doesn't mean you voted for Alfonse Simms. Paying $85 every three years to be allowed to vote for Red Simms doesn't really make you part of a privileged class, or give you any more rights or freedoms, either.