Airport Scanners, `Enhanced' Patdowns Bring Suit by Harvard Law Students

[The Northerner]

The U.S. government was sued in federal court in Boston by two Harvard University law students who claim their constitutional rights were violated by “nude body scanners” and “enhanced pat-downs” at airports.

Jeffrey Redfern, 27, and Anant Pradhan, 23, who are members of the law school’s class of 2012, said the security measures taken at airports are “intrusive” and violate the Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, according to their complaint filed on Nov. 29.

The students, who said they are regular travelers who use Boston’s Logan International Airport, seek a declaration that mandatory screening using the enhanced measures is unconstitutional and a ban on the techniques “without reasonable suspicion or probable cause.”

More than 400 body scanners, which are designed to detect non-metallic weapons beneath clothing, have been installed in at least 70 U.S. airports. Fewer than 50 were in use a year ago, the Transportation Security Administration has said.

The TSA has accelerated adoption of the scanners since a Northwest Airlines passenger tried to blow up a flight to Detroit on Dec. 25 by igniting explosives in his underpants. The bomb failed to fully detonate.

Read more: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-12-01/airport-scanners-enhanced-patdowns-bring-lawsuit-by-massachusetts-pair.html

[somone]

1. Good - let the discovery begin

[katandmoon]

2. K&R for them

[snot]

3. K&R'd

It's a shame 2 law students are the only ones to mount this challenge.

[flyarm]

4. Yeahhhhhhh!! about time someone filed a suit! Keep them coming! eom

[sabrina 1]

6. Yes, but lots of people have filed suit over the past few weeks

I posted a few of them in this comment in another thread on the subject http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=post&forum=389&topic_id=9671048&mesg_id=9671189

At least six that I found just in the past couple of weeks. One of them is a class action suit by an organization that has been keeping tabs on this issue for a while.

People better do something, either refusing to fly or joining class action suits, because now that the got these abominations into our airports, they are planning on bringing them to our streets and malls. Police states of the past would envy the direction we are going.

[intheflow]

5. Hopefully, this challenge coming from Harvard students

will add some gravitas to the suit and give it some teeth.