We can just imagine it. James Madison slipping into bed after a harrowing day of Constitution construction and dreaming happy dreams of the future republic in which agents of the state had the authority to force citizens to expose their genitals to their photographic devices.
Ridiculous you say. Madison knew nothing of modern imaging techniques. True enough. But such reasoning wasn’t enough to dissuade the DC Circuit Court from ruling that such was the founder’s intent.
In the opinion from the D.C. Circuit Court, Judge Douglas Ginsburg writes that the advance imaging technology is not unreasonable given the security concerns on airplanes, and that people have the option to opt out for a pleasurable patdown. The court notes that some “have complained that the resulting patdown was unnecessarily aggressive,” but the judges don’t seem overly concerned about that. Ginsburg writes:
“On the other side of the balance, we must acknowledge the steps the TSA has already taken to protect passenger privacy, in particular distorting the image created using AIT and deleting it as soon as the passenger has been cleared. More telling, any passenger may opt-out of AIT screening in favor of a patdown, which allows him to decide which of the two options for detecting a concealed, nonmetallic weapon or explosive is least invasive.”
So it’s either an invasion or your privacy or an invasion of your privates. According to Judge Douglas Ginsburg this excellent choice is all yours.
– Written by Kip Hooker at TheVitaminPress.com
Source: Forbes
