Originally Posted by
Pendergast
No the captain can't deny you boarding for just "some reason". Quit daydreaming and come back to reality. The airline and the captain must have probably cause/reason to deny you boarding, which has to be presented to you. Not answering what you, an American returning home from a tourist trip, do inside your homeland USA, or what your parent's names are, is not a probable cause to deny you boarding, and you're certainly not posing a security threat.
This is completely incorrect. A captain can easily say that they are not comfortable transporting a particular passenger and that passenger will simply not be transported. No "probable cause" is required, though under the Tokyo Convention on
Offences and Certain Other Acts Committed on Board Aircraft such a decision is not allowed to be "arbitrary or capricious." By the time one gets to litigating that, though, the aircraft will be long gone without the offending passenger on it.
...According to the US Code title 8 Section 1185, an American only needs a valid US passport to return to her/his homeland USA, that is "the State wherein they reside", 14th Amendment. They, thus, don't need to answer what they're doing in that State wherein they reside or what their parent's name is, or which restaurants they go to.
Yes -- that's true if and when you arrive at a border crossing. And you may not actually need a passport to be let in (though that certainly makes it easier). But, as was stated earlier several times, an airline or 🫣ther operator of a public conveyance is
not absolutely required to transport you
to the border.