Was it an act of civil disobedience, or simply a bad decision? I’m going with the latter, but a man, upset at the treatment he receives from TSA screeners, stripped naked at the Portland International Airport earlier this year.
While I’m all for calling attention to the numerous problems of the TSA, I’m not sure that getting naked in front of your fellow travelers is the right approach. Sure, the man’s act got me to write about the TSA again. But the “freak show factor” of the protest doesn’t help the cause.
On a more significant note, Walter Olson, says that that TSA has refused to obey a court’s ruling that it follow standard legal procedures, which call for a public comment period on its “full bdy” scanners. Here’s why that’s a big deal: the public-comment period is “a chance for opponents to lodge objections and establish a basis for judicial review.”
Note also that the TSA could soon be rolling out new scanning devices that will let its employees detect traces of drugs or gun powder on your clothes to what you had for breakfast to the adrenaline level in your body.” While the machines could have some beneficial uses, they pose questions about what constitutes a search of your person–and when government needs to obtain a warrant. As the article in Gizmodo says, with the device “not only can they scan everyone. They would be able to do it everywhere: the subway, a traffic light, sports events… everywhere” — all without your knowledge.