Originally Posted by hiltonhead

Now we get into the murky, gray areas. By being in the secure area and acknowledging the right of authorities to search your bag, the right to privacy of your person is mostly negated. That being said, authorities do not have the right to walk up and down the concourse looking in every bag, UNLESS, there is a reason to do so....such as a bomb threat to the airport or an exigent circumstance. The level of reasonable suspicion is lower in the airport due to the secure area loophole. On the streets, if I saw a nervous looking person, inappropriately dressed, carrying a oversized tote bag...I may stop and try to speak to him, but would have to grin and bear it as he told me to kiss his butt and walked away. I have nothing but a hunch, or at most, weak reasonable suspicion. If I were an airport LEO, and saw this same person in "C" concourse, my options would be different. Depending on the governing authority and local rules, this could include, but not limited to, expulsion from the airport, confiscation of the bag, or detainment. At the least, defiance will result in a very complete search and ID examination.
The search of your bags should stay within the scope of the suspected crime. But do not forget the plain view doctine (quick definition coming here) If a cop has a legal right to be somewhere and is performing a legal search, anything found in "plain view" can be seized as evidence. This means that if the cop has a articulatable reasonable suspicion that you have a gun in your bag and asked to search your bag in the secure area (which he can because of the loophole) then the child porn and 5 lbs. of cocaine in the bag will present a problem for the flyer and their lawyer.
Please understand that these are extreme situations and that rules very from airport to airport depending on their particular policy and guidelines. I would think that a airport LEO in ORD or HOU would have different procedures than one in EWR or SFO.
The bottom line is...they can search for almost any reason, but any lawyer worth his weight in horse manure will tear apart the actions of a bored cop. Also, don't forget the "random" searches, such as those performed by TSA on passengers boarding certain flights. Anything found there may be used as evidence also...and most of the time there is a LEO present during these searches.
Hope this cleared up some confusion, but remember that the laws are seldom clear cut...thats' why we have some many Supreme Court decisions, especially on the search and seizure front.