TSA: Search your iPhone? Yes we can!
#16
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Considering that CBP already searches laptops and phones, I don't see it as a great stretch for the TSA to assume that authority.
(Note - I don't see that as a good thing. If it's not a hazard to aviation, it's none of the TSA's business.)
(Note - I don't see that as a good thing. If it's not a hazard to aviation, it's none of the TSA's business.)
#17
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#18
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#20
Join Date: Nov 2008
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All legal arguments can be viewed as "slippery slope" arguments! You always say "If X were the case, then wouldn't Y also be?". Remember the Supreme Court Justice's questions in the ACA case, such as "If you claim the government can force people to buy health insurance, do you believe the government can also force people to buy brocoli?".
Leave the slippery slopes to the extreme right wing Fox News types. I'll stick with Critical Thinking.
Strong legal arguments are not a slippery slope. Extreme right and left media and no-talent bloggers use the slippery slope as an argument. Real journalists and critical-thinking individuals actually compare like to like.
Comparing "identification media," which reasonable people construe to mean "Something with your name on it that can reasonably be used to determine identity" to "searching through your iPhone" is not comparing like to like.
You *certainly* don't need to put an entirely fabricated argument in a headline. If a journalist did that, we'd call it irresponsible journalism.
Last edited by UshuaiaHammerfest; Jul 24, 2012 at 12:12 am
#21
Join Date: Oct 2010
Posts: 516
If you are like most people, you probably have electronic identification already; you just don't know it.
#22
Join Date: Mar 2009
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But it most certainly is! I'd suggest you read some typical briefs in legal cases. Whenever somebody claims they have some right, the question is always to ask what they see as the limits of that right. If my neighbor is suing me because I've built something one foot into their property and I claim I have a right do to that, I should most certainly expect the judge to ask me where I think the limit is. One foot, two feet, ten feet? Etc.
#23
Join Date: Jun 2010
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[inserts wrong code]
Phone starts yelling "Stop touching me!"
[inserts wrong code again]
"You're hurting me. Stop. Help. Phone rape. Help" (lather, rinse, repeat)
#24
Join Date: Sep 2003
Location: Houston
Posts: 8,956
If the TSA believes they have this authority, then fine, change the law to extend beyond WEI, which is what the current regulations state. Given the TSA's refusal to provide notice and comment about AIT over a year after the court ordered it to do so, I don't hold out much hope that the TSA feels any compulsion to document this authority except by internal fiat.
#25
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They didn't claim that. The blogger/OP did.
The judge hasn't ruled yet, either, so I'm pretty we don't know the judge's attention span -- or your cat's, for that matter.
The iPhone was thrown in by the blogger to generate a sensationalistic headline that would grab readers. There is nowhere in the Motion to Dismiss that in any way suggests that TSA believes it's acceptable to search someone's phone under the guise of seeking "Identification media."
In fact, the MTD & Memorandum in support that the blogger posted don't even contain the phrase "identification media," or the quote that the blogger called out on the post. (ETA: The MTD doesn't contain it; the Memorandum does.)
What's sad is that, this lawsuit might *actually* have some merit to determining how constitutional some of TSA's policies are, but as long as the blogger turns every question or issue into a slippery slope, the mainstream won't listen.
The judge hasn't ruled yet, either, so I'm pretty we don't know the judge's attention span -- or your cat's, for that matter.
The iPhone was thrown in by the blogger to generate a sensationalistic headline that would grab readers. There is nowhere in the Motion to Dismiss that in any way suggests that TSA believes it's acceptable to search someone's phone under the guise of seeking "Identification media."
In fact, the MTD & Memorandum in support that the blogger posted don't even contain the phrase "identification media," or the quote that the blogger called out on the post. (ETA: The MTD doesn't contain it; the Memorandum does.)
What's sad is that, this lawsuit might *actually* have some merit to determining how constitutional some of TSA's policies are, but as long as the blogger turns every question or issue into a slippery slope, the mainstream won't listen.
The TSA has never been held accountable, for (among other things) defining the limits of their version of an "administrative search." In the real world, there is a precedent called something like the "elephant under the coffee table" standard. If you are a government actor conducting a search for an elephant, anything you find under the coffee table is inadmissible and out of bounds because an elephant can't hide under a coffee table. The TSA has never had to justify the minimum size of a prohibited item. That's our fault -- the American People -- for allowing that to happen. The smallest stable substance in the known universe is an atom of hydrogen. Since an atom of hydrogen is flammable, and, since the TSA has never been held accountable, they can claim that they have to search for items as small as an atom of hydrogen. That's their justification for looking inside personal papers, wallets, and other small areas and "discovering" joints, pills, cash, blank checks, and multiple credit cards and driver's licenses.
The whole ID nonsense got started when a former TSA administrator simply declared that "ID matters." (Hawley, circa 2008.) As is the case with prohibited items, there is no limit to what they define as ID, nor do they have to justify why they detain and otherwise harass someone they find with multiple "identification media" (again, an undefined term) that anyone of them hired off a pizza box determines to be fraudulent.
Does "ID matters" mean it's against TSA rules to fly with multiple IDs with different names? How about movie stars and even the local TV weather man with a stage name they may have on a company badge? How about a woman who just got married or divorced? How about an intelligence officer in a cover status? How about spouses with different surnames? Heck, "ID matters" doesn't even define an "ID." The TSA web site sort of does, but, places no limits on the TSA's ability to question anything with a name on it -- hard copy, electronic, tattoo, etc. "Throwing in an iPhone to generate a sensationalist headline..." is very much in bounds because the TSA has never said that searching electronic media of any type for undefined "identification media" is out of bounds.
It's clear that the TSA is looking to establish a new foothold on intrusiveness. If a judge and his/her law clerks don't do their homework, yes, he/she will have an attention span less than my cat's and do us all a huge disservice by driving another nail into the coffin containing the U.S. Constitution.
#26
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Why the word "media" then? I had never heard such a term as "identification media" before. What was wrong with "identification documents" (which could still include electronic documents, but is still less ambiguous and odd)? It seems to me that these words were very carefully chosen -- intentionally to allow their "officers" to search anything that might identify someone.
Don't want to believe it? That's fine -- but I guarantee we'll see in the news within the next year or so that the TSA has gone there, unless we can get this nonsense struck down in court (err, again).
--Jon
Don't want to believe it? That's fine -- but I guarantee we'll see in the news within the next year or so that the TSA has gone there, unless we can get this nonsense struck down in court (err, again).
--Jon
#27
Join Date: Nov 2008
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If it's so easy to make the jump from "we are allowed to look for identification media" to "we are allowed to search your iPhone and your laptop for whatever we want," then why stop there? Surely, the TSA must also think they're allowed to escort you to your car and search it, right? After all, your car most certainly has identification media (your registration, for example) and it's on airport property. Why didn't the blogger add that possibility to his post of irrational fears and baseless accusations?
Naturally, though, the most efficient identification media are things like your fingerprints and DNA. Surely by arguing what the FSD at that particular station argued, the TSA must certainly be saying they have a right to collect fingerprints and DNA samples and run them against the various national databases to confirm your identity. After all, since the TSA thinks they're allowed to look for drugs, they can also force a urine sample, right? They must already be doing it, right? Well if not, I guarantee it'll be happening in a year.
Why stop midway down a slippery slope? Let's take it as far down as we can. Who cares about rationality when we're fear-mongering about unknowns?
(I've read plenty of legal briefs. The difference is in what constitutes an argument, a question, and a ruling, and to how each is presented.)
Naturally, though, the most efficient identification media are things like your fingerprints and DNA. Surely by arguing what the FSD at that particular station argued, the TSA must certainly be saying they have a right to collect fingerprints and DNA samples and run them against the various national databases to confirm your identity. After all, since the TSA thinks they're allowed to look for drugs, they can also force a urine sample, right? They must already be doing it, right? Well if not, I guarantee it'll be happening in a year.
Why stop midway down a slippery slope? Let's take it as far down as we can. Who cares about rationality when we're fear-mongering about unknowns?
But it most certainly is! I'd suggest you read some typical briefs in legal cases. Whenever somebody claims they have some right, the question is always to ask what they see as the limits of that right. If my neighbor is suing me because I've built something one foot into their property and I claim I have a right do to that, I should most certainly expect the judge to ask me where I think the limit is. One foot, two feet, ten feet? Etc.
#28
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I find it eminently believable that TSA assumes it has the right (whether or not it has chosen to exercise it) to examine a cellphone, and I certainly wouldn't be surprised to read of a 'rogue' screener doing just that.
It may come up in conjunction with a mobile boarding pass - if the BP itself is suspicious, a TDC may very well use that as justification to try to probe a little deeper.
It may come up in conjunction with a mobile boarding pass - if the BP itself is suspicious, a TDC may very well use that as justification to try to probe a little deeper.
#29
Join Date: Apr 2003
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- TSA has in the past (and regardless of alleged official policy) accepted school IDs, Costco cards, and postmarked envelopes as evidence of identification. The email outbox on my phone arguably is equally good evidence since it shows my name as the source of any message generated.
Also note that TSA at PHL went on a fishing expedition and questioned the legitimacy of checks in a passenger's wallet (google "Kathy Parker TSA).
Without any stretching at all, I can easily see a power tripping TSO using these facts as justification to attempt to search a passenger's phone. Do you disagree? Note that even if it is not policy, all it takes is one FSD, AFSD, TSM, STSO, or even lone wolf TSO to decide to implement a "better" local policy and search a phone.
No, it's not. You don't have to agree with the TSA's argument that they're entitled to search for fake ID (and I certainly don't), but you also don't need to jump to the extreme that they're suddenly going to start searching through your phone, laptop, iPad, or the car you have parked in the parking lot.
The article and headline are poorly written but not misrepresentations of the situation. I'm much more worried about the power-tripping wannabe fascists running DHS/TSA than I am about poor journalism.
#30
Join Date: Nov 2008
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As I said in my first post on the matter, the lawsuit isn't such a horrible idea and yes, I wish someone like the ACLU were waging it. But as long as the blogger makes up complete BS, he's going to drive away anyone who might be in the "undecided" or "non-extreme" camp.