Flutterby™! : 4th amendment? 2005-12-30 16:34:52.57346+00

4th amendment?

2005-12-30 16:34:52.57346+00 by Dan Lyke 1 comments

Further proof that those airport searches aren't about safety: Student sues over airport arrest, she had a couple of condoms filled with flour ("She said she made them as a joke and would squeeze them to relieve stress.") on a domestic flight, airport screeners arrested her on suspicion of drug trafficking and held in jail for three weeks.

You can argue that customs agents have the right to search on entry to the country. You can argue that transportation safety agents have the right to search for contraband which might make flying unsafe. But "you're traveling, we can search you for whatever the hell we want" bothers the hell out of me.

I'm not sure that traveling with condoms filled with flour is the smartest thing in the world, on the other hand I've seen condoms or balloons filled with beans and, yeah, squeezing them is pretty therapeutic, so I can't even say that I think she was being stupid.

But no matter what, I hope she wins.

I attended the recent Gilmore vs. Gonzalez hearing, and one of the things I learned there was that these types of "adminstrative searches" (performed without a warrant) can only be used to insure the safety of the airplane and passengers. It sounded like they're not allowed to be used for law-enforcement purposes. It will be interesting to see how this case goes.. perhaps the decisions cited by GvsG are more recent than this woman's arrest.