links for 2010-11-22

Just because the Ninth Circuit ruled that 1973 airport screening procedures were legal administrative searches does not mean that the TSA is not currently violating the Fourth Amendment. In fact, the same court addressed secondary screenings only three years ago.

In Aukai, the Ninth Circuit stated TSA screening procedures are “well-tailored to protect personal privacy escalating in invasiveness only after a lower level of screening disclosed a reason to conduct a more probing search.” (United States v. Aukai, 497 F.3d 955 (2007)).

Employing AIT and enhanced pat-downs as primary screening mechanisms hardly seems to comport to that ruling.

While the new TSA enhanced pat downs may violate the Fourth Amendment on the surface, what most people are not aware of is that the 9th Circuit Court of the United States ruled on the search of passengers in airports back in 1973, which effectively suspends limited aspects of the Fourth Amendment while undergoing airport security screening.
In 1973 the 9th Circuit Court rules on U.S. vs Davis, 482 F.2d 893, 908, there are key pieces of wording that give the TSA its power to search essentially any way they choose to. The key wording in this ruling includes “noting that airport screenings are considered to be administrative searches because they are conducted as part of a general regulatory scheme, where the essential administrative purpose is to prevent the carrying of weapons or explosives aboard aircraft.”

a Lao Tzu story: 2500 years ago, if you wanted to cross a river your bridge was basically a rope slung between the banks. You hauled yourself over, using the rope to counter the drift of the current. Imagine that upstream a man was in a boat and he lost his oar. He is out of control as the current bears him towards you. When he hits you, or comes close, you shake your fist at him. But what if the boat was empty? To be hit by en empty boat is an act of fate, an accident. It’s a story to tell. To act in the way of Tao, essentially, is to act as an empty boat.