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Harvard pair sue TSA over screenings
By Donna Goodison | Thursday, December 2, 2010 | http://www.bostonherald.com | Local Coverage
Two Harvard Law School students are suing the Transportation Security Administration, claiming the so-called “nude body scanners” and intrusive pat-downs used to screen airline passengers are unconstitutional.
Jeffrey Redfern and Anant Pradhan claim use of the scanners and pat-downs as primary screening methods violates their Fourth Amendment right against unreasonable searches and seizures. The frequent air travelers want to stop the TSA from using either without “reasonable suspicion or probable cause.”
“The abstract risk of terrorism without a credible, specific threat ... does not justify the (searches),” states the suit, filed in Boston federal court.
“The enhance pat-down procedure, if done non-consensually, would amount to a sexual assault in most jurisdictions, and the intrusion of peering under his clothes would be similarly illegal,” the lawsuit states.
Airline travelers who opt out of the scanners must submit to the new pat-downs, which use front-of-the-hand, slide-down motions to search their bodies, including their buttock, genitals and breasts. The pat-downs, first piloted at Logan International Airport and in Las Vegas beginning in August, were rolled out nationally the last week of October.
Redfern declined comment and Pradhan could not be reached. The TSA also declined comment.
A National Opt-Out Day that called for passengers to reject the scanners in favor of the pat-downs on the day before Thanksgiving fizzled. At Logan, the TSA screened 222,891 passengers last Wednesday through Sunday, and just 1,224 chose a pat-down. The TSA could not say how many passengers were offered screening through Logan’s 17 scanners.
Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/news/regional/view.bg?articleid=1300257
By Donna Goodison | Thursday, December 2, 2010 | http://www.bostonherald.com | Local Coverage
Two Harvard Law School students are suing the Transportation Security Administration, claiming the so-called “nude body scanners” and intrusive pat-downs used to screen airline passengers are unconstitutional.
Jeffrey Redfern and Anant Pradhan claim use of the scanners and pat-downs as primary screening methods violates their Fourth Amendment right against unreasonable searches and seizures. The frequent air travelers want to stop the TSA from using either without “reasonable suspicion or probable cause.”
“The abstract risk of terrorism without a credible, specific threat ... does not justify the (searches),” states the suit, filed in Boston federal court.
“The enhance pat-down procedure, if done non-consensually, would amount to a sexual assault in most jurisdictions, and the intrusion of peering under his clothes would be similarly illegal,” the lawsuit states.
Airline travelers who opt out of the scanners must submit to the new pat-downs, which use front-of-the-hand, slide-down motions to search their bodies, including their buttock, genitals and breasts. The pat-downs, first piloted at Logan International Airport and in Las Vegas beginning in August, were rolled out nationally the last week of October.
Redfern declined comment and Pradhan could not be reached. The TSA also declined comment.
A National Opt-Out Day that called for passengers to reject the scanners in favor of the pat-downs on the day before Thanksgiving fizzled. At Logan, the TSA screened 222,891 passengers last Wednesday through Sunday, and just 1,224 chose a pat-down. The TSA could not say how many passengers were offered screening through Logan’s 17 scanners.
Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/news/regional/view.bg?articleid=1300257