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Thursday, December 9, 2010

New TSA Lawsuit – This Isn’t Helping!

I guess everybody is trying to get attention by suing the TSA.

The Rutherford Institute – a civil rights organization that was behind Paula Jones lawsuit against Bill Clinton – has filed a lawsuit against the TSA. Their press release can be found here.

The lawsuit claims that the TSA procedures violate the Fourth Amendment.

As I posted earlier, I don't think the TSA procedures violate the Fourth Amendment. These lawsuits have very little chance to succeed.

I have a growing concern that as people and organizations try to take advantage of the media frenzy about TSA procedures, we are missing a moment to have some deliberate and thoughtful education about the Fourth Amendment. The Harvard student lawsuit is not helpful. This one seems worse. The President of the Rutherford Institute is quoted as suggesting that the TSA procedures "violates human dignity and the U.S. Constitution, and goes against every good and decent principle this country was founded upon." Give me a break!

Hyperbolic rhetoric may be useful in fundraising appeals, but it does not help the public discourse about how we balance civil rights against what is a very real threat from terrorists.

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