We have a HUGE gray area which needs the courts to clear up - but I'm afraid our courts are either too immature or right-wing centric to follow the Constitution and the rule of law properly.

The gray area involves clearly defining the limits of an Administrative search, and preventing an Administrative search from morphing into a criminal one - without the participant being given the opportunity to withhold permission, remove the articles to be searched or remove themselves from the search area.

The result of this unclaimed territory is our airports being turned into dragnets for criminal activity (real and imagined). It saddens me that so many people think it's a good thing. What's next - checkpoints and dragnets at supermarkets, malls and gas stations?

The courts must rule than an administrative search is only legal when the following are true:

1) the location of the search is clearly defined
2) the scope of the search is clearly defined - the person being searched AND the person conducting the search must know the what is being looked for and anything not part of the search must be ignored
3) a person must be able to decline the search
4) a person must be able to stop the search and terminate the activity or relationship which triggered it - i.e., leave the airport checkpoint, federal building, courthouse, etc.
5) evidence is never admissible in a criminal proceeding unless the person being searched has been informed by an officer of the law that the Administrative search is terminated and a criminal search is going to commence - and the person being searched must be able to decline that criminal search until a warrant is secured or they leave absent an arrest (and the arrest must show clear probable cause)
5a) the Courts must establish the act of declining a criminal search is not grounds for probable cause or suspicion of any kind, but is nothing more than a fair exercise of a citizen's Constitutional rights.
6) A person or official conducting an Administrative search shall not have any power to arrest or detain the person being searched