As we’ve noted previously, the US Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit has scheduled oral arguments June 4th in Miami as part of its “review” of the TSA’s use of virtual strip-search machines. The Court may decide on the day to close portions of the argument to the public, but has overruled the latest […]
Recent events in three legal cases — one decision, one oral argument, and one interim order, each in different federal circuits — demonstrate the Alice-In-Wonderland character of the “reviews” of TSA practices conducted by the Courts of Appeals.
Today the Identity Project filed our comments on the TSA’s proposed rules to require travelers to submit to “screening” using virtual strip-search machines (“Advanced Imaging Technology” in TSA-speak. You have until next Monday, June 24, 2013 to submit your own comments. Here’s the introductory summary of our comments: Regulations of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) […]
The lawsuit by the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) which has forced the TSA to allow public “comment” on TSA use of “virtual strip-search machines” (on the basis of a “petition for rulemaking” originally submitted years ago by groups including the Identity Project) is only one of the cases by individuals and organizations seeking to […]
Edward Hasbrouck of the Identity Project will be speaking at a free, public forum on Travel Surveillance, Traveler Intrusion from noon-1 p.m. EDT next Tuesday, 2 April 2013, at the Cato Institute in Washington DC (with a live webcast): Travel Surveillance, Traveler Intrusion [photo by kind permission of Jeramie D. Scott] Video from the Cato […]
More than 18 months ago, a federal Court of Appeals ordered the TSA to provide formal notice and an opportunity for public comment on its “rules” for when travelers are required to submit to virtual strip-searches by machines that display images of our bodies as though naked. Today, after seemingly endless foot-dragging that left it […]
The TSA is a lawless agency, and its checkpoints are a domestic counterpart of Guantanamo: There are no rules saying what travelers do or don’t have to do at TSA checkpoints. All of the “procedures” we are required to comply with are secret. No “no-fly” order has yet been reviewed on its merits by any […]
As the TSA’s “screening” has become increasing invasive — searches, x-ray and microwave “whole body imaging”, genital groping, etc. — more and more people have suggested that, since we are required to submit to a virtual strip-search and/or groping of our genitals in order to obtain TSA permission to travel, we might as well show […]
Eleven months after the deadline for their response set by the Freedom Of Information Act (FOIA), the TSA has finally responded to our request for the TSA “Standard Operating Procedures” referred to in December 2009 testimony to Congress by TSA Acting Administrator Gale Rossides. The TSA did give us the list of SOPs (the first […]
We’re pleased and excited to see the spontaneous outpouring of grassroots outrage at the latest TSA “Standard Operating Procedures”, which offer would-be air travelers a Hobson’s choice between forms of submission to secret rules, illegitimate authority, and invasion of personal privacy. TSA wants us to choose between a virtual strip-search (x-ray or similar photography through […]