
Man With 4th Amendment Written on Chest Wins Trial Over Airport Arrest - hachiya
http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2013/01/4th-amendment-chest-trial/
======
ck2
That judge with the dissent - what a moron. Maybe Rosa Parks should have
protested somewhere other than the bus too eh?

Dude was braver than I've ever been, could have ended really badly.

~~~
OGinparadise
_Had this protest been launched somewhere other than in the security-screening
area, we would have a much different case. But Tobey’s antics diverted
defendants from their passenger-screening duties for a period, a diversion
that nefarious actors could have exploited to dangerous effect._

Yeah, the "nefarious actors" couldn't grope, er pat down, any women during
that time.

~~~
Snoptic
Beautiful reasoning from that judge: Don't be a victim of a crime, as that
distracts police from their work.

------
yock
Even though this ruling seems to be in favor of liberty, I'm disheartened to
read the excerpt of the appeals court ruling in the article.

 _We take heed of [Benjamin Franklin's] warning and are therefore unwilling to
relinquish our First Amendment protections—even in an airport._

The court finds itself tempted to set aside Constitutional language for the
sake of the nebulous idea of "national security." Next time they're faced with
a ruling of this nature, their temptations might just get the better of them.

~~~
ck2
They already set aside huge swaths of the constitution for "national
security".

I think their argument is "what's a little more violation?"

United States has had a very large constitution-free zone for many years -
people who have been stopped for border-searches hundreds of miles inland
already know this.

<http://www.aclu.org/constitution-free-zone-map>

------
Osiris
When I used to travel for work I made a big effort to avoid going through the
scanners by selecting lines that weren't using them or opt-ing out. My last
opt-out occurred after the new groping pat-downs were put into practice and I
found the pat-down much more disturbing than the scanner. Now, I still try to
avoid the line with the scanner, but when required, I'll go through them
rather than get groped.

Unfortunately, this lawsuit will do nothing to change the way the TSA
operates. I would have been happier to see the punishment not just be a
payment of monies but a requirement to change policies and procedures to avoid
this in the future. I don't see that happening.

~~~
StavrosK
I always opt-out too. It's a matter of principle, I refuse to have my privacy
invaded like that without being able to see who invades it, plus it creates
more work for them.

Also, I rather enjoy pat-downs. They're like a massage, and the TSA agents
wasn't too overt with the problematic regions, although they did try
psychological manipulation to make me feel bad (refusing to let me touch my
stuff, making me take my belt off, etc). I didn't mind, though, opting out
felt like a big "fuck you" to the TSA.

Of course, I don't even live in the US, so I've only done it twice.

~~~
tedunangst
Not touching your stuff isn't psychological manipulation. It's to prevent you
from interfering.

------
cdwhite
Eugene Volokh's take: [http://www.volokh.com/2013/01/25/man-who-took-off-his-
shirt-...](http://www.volokh.com/2013/01/25/man-who-took-off-his-shirt-at-tsa-
checkpoint-to-reveal-fourth-amendment-written-on-his-chest-may-proceed-with-
first-and-fourth-amendment-claim/)

------
gav
If his antics really distracted the TSA so that "nefarious actors" could
exploit the situation, the state of our airport security is in grave danger.

------
Pinatubo
Lazy protest. He should have sewed the text 4th amendment into the inside of
his shirt with strips of aluminum foil and then gone through the nudie
scanner.

~~~
joezydeco
Or he could just buy a premade one (when they're back in stock)

<http://cargocollective.com/4thamendment>

------
pitchups
And this is why I love the US and am a citizen! I can think of almost no other
country where such a man would not have been arrested and had no legal
recourse.

~~~
msbarnett
Evidently you're not familiar with most of the First World?

You have less freedom than most of us, not more. The NDAA wouldn't fly in
Canada, or Scandinavia, or ...

~~~
graue
> _Scandinavia_

Maybe better in some respects, but Sweden seems pretty corrupt in light of the
Pirate Bay trial and Assange prosecution.

~~~
nisse72
> pretty corrupt

Based on those two examples?

According to this: <http://cpi.transparency.org/cpi2012/results/>

...4 nordic countries place in the top 7. Sweden is nr 4. The US is nr 19.

~~~
graue
My opinion of Sweden's government has worsened considerably thanks to those
_extremely_ blatant examples of politically-motivated injustice. A high
ranking shouldn't be an excuse to sweep real problems away.

For more on the Pirate Bay trial, see Falkvinge's post here:

[http://falkvinge.net/2013/01/06/banana-republic-justice-
behi...](http://falkvinge.net/2013/01/06/banana-republic-justice-behind-the-
scenes-of-the-pirate-bay-trial/)

HN discussion: <https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5016277>

~~~
Snoptic
Sweden's two most famous failures were both kowtows to the US, so aren't much
relevant in a comparison against US corruption.

