By asserting one's rights, two objectives are accomplished. The first is calling their bluff. Is a police officer really going to arrest you for talking on a cell phone when the main cabin door is open, and there are F passengers doing exactly the same thing, who are not being arrested?

The second objective is to demonstrate that we (well, some of us) are not going to allow people to push us around *in the name of safety* or *according to FAA regs*. Please understand I don't condone something like fighting an armed robber because you don't wish to lose your "right not to be robbed". I'm talking about not giving away your Constitutional right to due process (or whatever is the proper term for being arrested only by those with legal powers of arrest, sorry I'm not a lawyer).

An arrest record is not a big deal. Employment applications cannot ask you if you've been arrested. They can ask if you've been convicted of a felony. Come on, this isn't China, where being arrested and being convicted are basically the same thing.

I'll gladly take a day in jail followed by my Constitutional right to a fair trial over a trampling of my rights by some FA with a bad hair day. I know jail isn't fun & games; I have been in jail as a dumb 18 yr old (though only one night, and charges were dropped by prosecution, so there! ). But there are some things I will not compromise, and my Constitutional rights are one of them.