Originally Posted by Bart

If there's anything that's a slow erosion of our freedoms, it's the laws that allow the police to stop us just to make sure we're wearing our seat belts. The way I see it, we have a God-given right to be stupid. And failure to wear a seat belt is certainly stupid. However, when a police officer stops a driver to make sure the driver is wearing a seat belt, a whole bunch of other things come into play. That officer then can justify, for self-protection, to conduct a search of the car and the driver. To me, this allows police officers an opportunity to "fish for evidence" they may not have originally thought was there. I see this as a slow erosion of our liberty and a gradual slide of government crossing the constitutional lines protecting us against unreasonable searches.

Nothing like this happens at a security checkpoint. Passengers voluntarily undergo the screening process. The screening process itself is designed to look for a specific list of prohibited items. The passenger is well aware of these prohibited items. Possession of these prohibited items result in either the passenger being given the opportunity to exit back into the public area to dispose of these items or the passenger abandoning these items at the checkpoint. No arrests, no detention. Only illegal items, that is to say, items that are specifically unlawful to possess either at any time (such as improvised explosive devices) or at a specific time (such as firearms in carry-on) carry the consequence of arrest and detention. And even so, the police officer must due process as defined by the courts in terms of rights warnings, arraignment, etc.