You know it's bad when we both agree on something.... If ever there was something ACLU should be getting their teeth into, it's this one.

.....

This is a concern area for the ACLU, but you need plaintiffs to bring a complaint. Most of the local chapters of the ACLU aren't "activist chapters," despite what people say in political discourse, and only go to court to represent real people with real grievances who want to right a wrong. Most people with grievances are more likely to work with a private attorney on contingency with a hope of some monetary gain.

The ultimate client with the ACLU is always the Bill of Rights, so the kind of plaintiffs we got when I was working there usually had broader goals. Further, the boards of each chapter decide what kind of cases the ACLU will take, and those are people from your community, so the priorities of each ACLU chapter reflects the concerns of the community, which might not necessarily be the TSA. You can imagine there's a lot of people with a lot of grievances and so usually you see the ACLU will go after the issues that are of most concern to the local community and will do the most good for the most people in preserving people's rights.

There's no end to the work, and the resources are extremely limited. It's not like Uncle Sam gives us a stipend so we can keep him honest.

I love throwing them for a loop by being the first to use the "please calm down sir/ma'am" routine because really, "there's no need for you to get worked up about this, kindly calm down please."

I see the thread title says "ADA," but would a lot of the concerns here be covered in the Air Carrier Access Act?

Interesting thought.

IANAL, but I thought that the Air Carrier Access Act only applies to the airlines and their contractors. The Act does cover security screening but it appears (from my reading) that this refers only to airline-provided screening, which is no longer applicable in the post-9/11 world.

Would be curious to read what the FT legal experts have to say.

Is this the same act as you mention?

14 CFR Part 382
Nondiscrimination on the Basis
of Disability in Air Travel

http://airconsumer.dot.gov/rules/382short.pdf

Yes, those are the implementing regulations for DOT because of the ACAA.

FYI: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/pract...it-vs-tsa.html

This round is purely about FOIA & Privacy Act, but it's a prelude to the next round which'll be under �1983/Bivens, ADA / Rehabilitation Act, 1st & 4th Amendment, etc.

I don't have a cause of action against the TSA under the ACAA; as mentioned above, the ACAA (a) is about airlines, and (b) doesn't provide for any civil liability to the individual (only to the government).