Originally Posted by
CLEburger
According to my activist brother, these sorts of Elite lines are a violation of Federal and State civil rights laws. Apparently you cannot offer a service or ammenity located in a "public space" (i.e. government operated) that offers a privledge that is not offered to everyone. It is dubious to me that federal employees are involved as well.
Your brother is wrong. The lines are generally (and in the vast majority of places) not operated by the government but by the airlines or the airport authority (as someone else pointed out, often a company set up to manage the airport commercially).
The lines then are just like those at the Starbucks at the airport. If Starbucks wants to give some customers a special line, they're welcome to and in no way violating civil rights.
I also don't understand why anyone would care that elite fliers have special lines. Getting rid of them won't make Ma and Pa Kettle's once-yearly experience with security significantly more brief, and why begrudge the folks who have to fly dozens to hundreds of times a year the ability to get through more quickly?