Arkansas man sues over new TSA full-body scans

[avaistheone1]

Source: Washington Post

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. -- An Arkansas man has filed a federal lawsuit against the Transportation Security Administration, claiming that the agency's new screening rules are detrimental to his "emotional, psychological and mental well-being."

Robert Dean filed the lawsuit Monday in federal court in Little Rock, even though the Little Rock National Airport does not yet have the full-body scanners that have drawn criticism throughout the country. Dean's lawsuit asks a federal judge to issue an injunction stopping the TSA from conducting full-body pat-down searches and using the full-body imaging scanners.

The lawsuit claims that the new practices violate Dean's civil rights and his Fourth Amendment right protecting against unlawful searches and seizures.

TSA says it does not comment on pending litigation.


Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/11/23/AR2010112305250.html

[highprincipleswork]

1. Good for him.

All I can say is - I hope many more follow suit.

[the.barberpole]

2. TSA full body scans

listen............the american people are not the targets of
bad guys........it is the politicians who caused this shit and
it is they who are the real targets- (unfortunatly) thru us !
fuck politicians !


where is the ethics and morals of our "leaders"?

[GoddessOfGuinness]

4. Welcome to DU!

The worst thing is that airport security lines are only the beginning. If they're going to freak out and protect us from all possible terror attacks, they'll have to start putting scanners everywhere...train stations, bus stations, schools, shopping malls, concerts...

The list of possibilities is endless. What really needs to be addressed is our meddling practices in other countries. We've been brainwashed into thinking terrorists are simply people who "hate us for our freedom" and other BS lines. But it's too terrifying for our leaders to consider the downside of giving up control over foreign oil.

[ncrainbowgrrl]

47. Welcome to DU!

:hi:

[catgirl]

3. I hope I never have to fly with this guy!

If scanners are "detrimental to his "emotional, psychological and mental well-being." , then he needs to get some help.

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

6. I guess he cares about his freedom

Its amazing how many people will just cow down to these ridiculous invasive procedures.

[Iowa]

31. Unfortunately, some of those wimps are defending the TSA perverts right here on DU.

[ldf]

55. wimp, present and accounted for

sorry, but my security trumps your personal issues, any day.

you don't like it? stay home.

i would suggest you get your panties in a wad over REAL issues, not these distractions.

there are a lot of us so-called wimps here, and we certainly aren't cowering in fear, although it seems pretty much like du has been taken over by screamers.

the "so-called backlash" was all media hype. there were no delays, people didn't mind. yet it certainly led everyone to believe that there was a passenger revolt against the evil nanny daddy going on...

even while all polls said 80% of the public had no problem with security precautions, it was BACKLASH 24/7 by the talking heads.

what is truly pathetic is that all the nay-sayers, couched first in personal indignation at a scanner (who gives a fuck about someone seeing the outline of your junk), then when they refuse, shriek about a pat down (don't you DARE touch anywhere near the previously mentioned junk), then go on to whining about radiation exposure (how long, a day, do you have that cell phone plastered to your head?), are a party to the right wing assault on obama, because this, by inference, is all his fault.....

we wimps realize the gravity of the situation, and in today's modern world we are going to have to make adjustments. either that, or we can let just anyone, anytime, board any plane, with absolutely no precautions whatsoever, because the IS what you are talking about.

have you ever heard of "being played like a fiddle"? look in a mirror. you HAVE been played.


and that is MR. wimp, to you. learn some damn manners.

[ixion]

9. The reason I don't fly anymore is the same as the reason he states

It causes me distress, in that it really pisses me off that such jack-booted thug behavior is tolerated in a supposedly free country.

[Bobbieo]

10. Our freedoms are diminishing every day - pretty soon there will be no reason

for anyone to hate us because of our freedoms. Guess that makes sense.

[Aaria]

36. Thier whole reason for the scanner is BS. Google : Haskell truth. Learn...

how the little bomber got on the flight in the first place.

[AnOhioan]

28. +1

[OrangeGrapes]

35. So, do you pefer security over liberty?

You know about Franklin's little nugget of wisdom about that, right?

[Pacifist Patriot]

42. I'm a fairly normal person as that goes.

And actually as a pastoral caregiver at risk for "compassion fatigue," my mental health is pretty regularly evaluated.

I am beginning to have fairly serious moments of anxiety concerning an upcoming flight on December 4. For the last week, I have woken up about an hour before my alarm each day and cannot get the process out of my head for a bit.

I think his case is going to be tossed if he is not a ticketed passenger and actually been subjected to the process, but I wouldn't dismiss his anxiety as necessarily pathological.

[sarcasmo]

5. This is where we have to beat them in the court system.

[jb5150]

7. Since when does a person

have a right to fly? What if I think that a driver's license and insurance are detrimental to my "emotional, psychological and mental well-being."

To be clear, I am against these new procedures too. I just think there are better ways to go about this than frivolous lawsuits.

[ixion]

12. It's not about a right to fly. It's about a Right of Privacy

Flying isn't in the Bill of Rights.

[MsPithy]

17. EVERYONE, PLEASE! Stop saying there is no right to fly!

Travel is a protected right in the 5th Amendment as found in Kent v. Dulles 357 U.S. 116 (1958). Justice Douglas, in his majority opinion mentions the right to travel is as early as the Magna Carta.

To those of you who are tempted to continue by saying "That doesn't mean flying!" I say to you, that might be Fox Channel logic, try to get it past a judge who might ask "What is flying if it is not travel?"

I lifted the first paragraph from Charles Kearney, I'm just so sick of hearing this "There is no right to fly," garbage.


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/charles-kearney/tsa-regulations-anger-apa_b_787458.html

[truth2power]

19. I agree. n/t

[Art_from_Ark]

24. [phone] 000 000

I'm sick of hearing that garbage, too.

[Sinistrous]

39. Yes! Thank you!

[Pacifist Patriot]

41. It's gotten to the point I am sorely tempted to place anyone on ignore who

continues with this ridiculous argument.

Thank you!

[Bragi]

43. Thanks for that! /nt

[primavera]

46. Hear, hear!

I too get so sick of hearing people defend the legitimacy of unconscionable contract requirements on the grounds that parties can always choose to not utilize the service. Right, we can choose to not fly, to not have power, to not have phones, to not have credit cards or bank accounts, to basically withdraw from the modern world and go live in a fucking cave. Oh yeah, that's some great alternative, alright. But because we perceive that as some sort of realistic option, we're willing to tolerate the most heinously one-sided contract provisions that strip us of our most basic rights because, after all, we can always choose that Stone Age life in a cave.

[daleo]

18. We thought the right to travel freely was sacrosanct during the cold war

When the Soviets denied it to their citizens. In fact, we swore we would never tolerate such outrageous assaults on our fundamental freedoms.

[blackspade]

20. 4th amendment rights are the issue

A license and insurance are what you have to pay for to drive, hell you have to pay for the car too.
When buy a airline ticket you are buying your right to fly.
What we are talking about is like requiring you to take a breathalyzer before you drive.
Or being stopped at a check point in your neighborhood to have you and your car sniffed for drugs that might be imparing you.

It is what we are talking about here, illegal searches without cause.

[kag]

29. My argument against the whole...

"People don't have a right to fly" argument is this:

The TSA is a government agency. United Airlines isn't saying I have to be groped and prodded before boarding one of their planes. Uncle Sam is. And when the government tries to inflict unreasonable search and seizure upon me, I say that it is unconstitutional. No?

[lunatica]

45. Lame

[ProudDad]

50. USAmericans have a constitutional right to freely engage in

interstate commerce and to freely travel...

It's not really a stretch to make the case that "YES!", a person has a right to fly without being inhibited or subjected to violations of the 4th Amendment...

I'd put my money on this FAR from "frivolous" lawsuit...

How much would it take before you defended your Civil Rights? :eyes:

[monktonman]

8. Im with you on "the right to fly"

really... since when do you have a right to fly???
dont want to be pat down?... then dont fly.
Its a privilege YOU PAY FOR.

[ixion]

13. Our society is built on the concept of moving around quickly...

So if you are a free citizen, there is no reason you should be barred from flying, or boarding a train, or a bus, or a boat, or a rocket ship to the moon, for that matter.

[monktonman]

14. you are not "barred" from flying

[MsPithy]

21. You are wrong!

Kent v. Dulles and US v. Guest.

[kag]

30. "I'm North American, you know...

...Don't like to hear where I can't go.
Free people will insist on the freedom to travel."

--Jackson Browne, "Goin' Down to Cuba"


great song

[alarimer]

34. They don't have probable cause to search us.

Not at the airport, not anywhere else.

The right to travel is a right recognized under law.

[Sinistrous]

40. "Privilege" ? My ass.

I have the RIGHT to travel by whatever means I choose and can afford.

Who, pray tell, is the benevolent entity granting me this so-called "privilege"?

[Bragi]

44. I'm pleased to say: "You are completely wrong!"

See http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=4626850&mesg_id=4627010

[ProudDad]

51. You need to read this

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x4626850#4627010

[redirish28]

11. Good for him this is a question of privacy that needs to be out here.

[dballance]

15. This Case Won't See A Trial

It doesn't sound like this guy has been through one of the scanners. If he hasn't been scanned he can't have been "damaged" by the scanning process. I'm betting it gets kicked quick.

[kag]

32. Hopefully not before...

someone else--perhaps the guy with bladder cancer or the woman with the breast prosthetic--does the same thing.

[dballance]

53. The Guy w/ the Ostomy Has a Case

and I hope he pursues it and nails their asses. My only regret is that it will be our tax dollars he gets in a settlement. That's no more fair to us taxpayers than his abuse was to him. Too bad that airport didn't already have a private company doing the security so they got sued and not the US Govt. But, I'm being silly. I'm sure any contracts a private company makes with the Govt. for this work will include language that keeps them from getting sued or makes the Govt. pay for their defense and any damages they have to pay. I mean our Govt. already did that to protect all the contract firms in Iraq so expect it here too.

[The abyss]

16. Scanners and TSA operators are most likely in violation of state regulations all across the country.

Big thanks to LibDemAlways for pointing out the obvious here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x4624766#4625697

Each State attorney general's office needs to be contacted and questioned.

Look the statues up on line, state by state.


Call, snail mail, e-mail, write letters to the local rags

The TSA is attempting to operate an x-ray machine with non-certified technicians.

A machine that the TSA says is safe!

You really want your kids x-rayed by some nit-wit that can't get a job burning french frys?

[MsPithy]

25. I think the TSA agents that are touching private areas might be charged with sexual assault.

Touching private areas without freely given permission is a sexual assault. Those travelers who submit have given their permission after being threatened with forfeiting their flight or threatened with a $11,000 fine. Coerced consent is not consent.

[LibDemAlways]

26. Questioning the qualifications of those operating the machines

didn't originate with me. I saw a thread on DU a few days ago where the poster expressed the same concerns. I have several friends who are x-ray technicians. They are well trained and licensed by the state.

I would like assurances that if TSA is going to x-ray the flying public, the people operating the machines are properly trained and licensed and the machines themselves are properly monitored.

TSA has been known to recruit employees using ads on pizza boxes. That doesn't inspire confidence.

[The abyss]

33. Well - none the less I give you full credit for drawing my attention

I never thought of it nor realized the legal & safety issues.

Again - Thank you!

Each state will have specific qualifications for x-ray technicians.

Contact those state regulators and ask questions.

Each state will have specific criteria for x-ray equipment.

Contact those state regulators and ask questions.

Until proven otherwise the TSA is attempting to "fry" the "flying public"

These machines need to be taken apart and technical documents provided to the individual states explaining in detail how they function and what training TSA operators have.

[PatrynXX]

22. Rather do the body scan

I'd rather him not touch my junk. Only a licensed doctor has that right. The full body scans I'd do all in good fun because it's pointless and a ball of laugh.. Yes we do have the right to call it the porn machine. Frankly wouldn't it be easier to hand them my clothes and go thru the tunnel of love??

[LisaL]

23. You have to realize that if the scan shows an anomaly

(such as you forgot a rubber band in your pocket) you will be required to undergo a pat down on top of the scan.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

27. maybe everyone shouldn't fly and go by high speed trains or boats?

this whole thing is a farce.

[ManiacJoe]

48. Where would one find those alternatives?

[ProudDad]

52. Europe... (n/t)

[Riverman]

37. Glad someone filed a suit. As a Gay Man who has to travel for my job often

and who has recovered from prostate cancer after radiation treatment, I don't want more radiation from those damn xray machines, and I don't want a man touching my groin or inner thigh in an uninvited manner. Why is that not a form of molestation? Same for lesbians who may not want a strange women feeling her breasts, as the TSA pat down includes, or her genital area, in an uninvited manner. We cannot let this practice stand! Creeping fascism must be stopped while we still have a constitution. Thank goodness we have citizens having the means and courage to file a law suit to find a legal means to stop these unconstitutional measures.

[intheflow]

38. K&R n/t

[Gin]

49. heard some man on the news with an artificial joint say he wishes

our airport had the scanners since we pay taxes....little does he know he will get to do both the machine & the pat down.

we have 2 airports in Hampton roads and neither one has the scanners yet.

[No Elephants]

54. Wary. Ed Schultz claims the RW is ginning this up for privatization reasons.