Originally Posted by Wally Bird

CVIN/NCIC check. The Supreme Court has ruled (Michigan v. Summers, 452 U.S. 692, 701 (1981) et al.), that this is permissible during the course of a Terry stop. But, a Terry stop itself requires a "reasonable and articulable" suspicion on the part of the officer. Since no applicable law* has been cited in this incident, OP provided oral identification and no evidence was provided of any other kind of suspicious activity (except in the minds of the TSA), the justification for the Terry stop itself would seem debatable.

Worth "fighting" ? Yes.
Worth spending money to do so ? Probably not. Sigh. YMMV

*And a precedent in Gilmore which would seem to support the legality of OP's action