I dunno. Real police -- the only people who can make arrests -- know something about the Constitution. I'm not so sure that they would arrest someone who politely asks to be left alone, to be allowed to leave the airport and to go home.

You certainly have the right to refuse to be searched on departure. Your alternative is to leave the airport. But nobody is searched against their will. I don't see how the rules can be different on arrival.

I agree that the TSA clowns would demand that I be arrested under the circumstances that I described. I have just barely enough confidence in real police, however, to believe that they would refuse, absent some justification -- which I would be sure not to provide.

Bruce