On November 7, 2010, Thomas Sawyer went through the security checkpoints at the Detroit Metropolitan Airport where he was severely humiliated and abused by Transportation Security Administration (TSA) agents. “I was absolutely humiliated, I couldn’t even speak,” said Sawyer, a 61-year-old bladder cancer survivor (Baskas). After battling cancer, Sawyer has to wear a urostomy bag which collects his urine. “One agent watched as the other used his flat hand to go slowly down my chest. I tried to warn him that he would hit the bag and break the seal on my bag, but he ignored me. Sure enough, the seal was broken and urine started dribbling down my shirt and my leg and into my pants” (Baskas). This is a clear example of the TSA’s gross perversion of power, and this kind of harmful treatment is now happening on a daily basis in major airports throughout the United States. Youtube, internet blogs, and other online articles are replete with the recounting of painful and sometimes scary experiences passengers have endured at the hands of arrogant or aggressive TSA-sanctioned agents.
The examination of the Fourth Amendment sheds Constitutional light into the abuses aforementioned as violations of every air traveler’s basic civil rights. The Fourth Amendment, as stated in the Constitution, declares: “The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized” (“Fourth…”). In essence, the government cannot invade your privacy, check your mail, search your house, your body, or your belongings without a probable cause and a warrant signed by a judge that specifies what government agents are looking for and what they’re going to seize. The writers of the Constitution did not consider any caveat. There is no exception to this rule.
The Fourth Amendment is important to all of us. It holds the government accountable for its actions and limits the power it exerts over the inhabitants of the land. The creators of the Constitution understood that unlimited governmental invasion breaches our civil rights; thus the Fourth Amendment acts to protect our liberties and rights conferred by the Constitution. The alternative to the government supporting civil rights is the government becoming oppressive and tyrannical.
The TSA was developed after the 9/11 terrorist attacks to provide security at our nation’s airports along with other transportation channels ("TSA…"). Several of the tools used to ensure safe traveling are pat downs, bodyscans, and luggage searches. In 2003, the TSA came under the authority of Homeland Security, which is a government body “responsible for assessing the nation’s vulnerabilities… to ensure the most effective response” (“DHS…”).
The recently revised TSA regulations are extremely invasive and are a complete violation of privacy. The new pat downs are now executed using the front of the hand rather than the back, and the screening machines that passengers are required to go through produce high-resolution photos of your most intimate body parts that are subsequently saved into a database for review (“Airport…”). The emended pat downs include strip searches and repeatedly touching, groping, and feeling highly sensitive areas of the body in open view of the public; privacy is nonexistent. The TSA officials are calling these “enhanced” security measures, but from the perspective of those subject to these searches, it’s a raw exercise of power--purposefully creating humiliating and depraved situations. Those newly enforced procedures also create an ever increasing state of fear.
On the surface, these procedures were implemented to make air travel safer for passengers, as terrorists use more insidious means to threaten air travelers. The increased security measures were put into place to deter terrorists from even trying to go through the scanning system with any potentially explosive devices. However, you can never be completely safe. As current technology is evolving into nanotechnology, meaning that smaller and smaller objects can be used as explosive devices, terrorists can have access to this advanced equipment. It is very possible that this technology can be undetectable even through the intensified scanning process used by the TSA. The refusal of the TSA to profile terrorists has resulted in every potential passenger becoming a suspect. Is it possible that the TSA (as in, the government) is trying to implement a frame of mind where every inhabitant is guilty before being proven innocent, a total reversal of the commonly understood justice system?
Every person wanting to fly is not a terrorist. The terrorists are a minority, yet the TSA is treating the majority like a culpable minority. For the sake of a few terrorists who have created havoc in this country, we are all viewed as potential criminals on our own soil. Marketing manager for Roanoke Regional Airport, Sherri Wallace states, "They are going to be searching you as if you were a criminal" (Donnelly). The Fourth Amendment states that there must be a warrant provided by a judge and a probable cause in order to search and seize. Where are the individual warrants for the people who want to fly? If you have no probable cause, you may not do this and the government has no probable cause that every person going through the gates of an airport and boarding a plane is dangerous. Without probable cause and warrants, searches and seizures have become unreasonable, thus violating the expressed wording and purpose of this amendment.
We should be concerned because the Fourth Amendment is a basic right for which many sacrificed their lives. A government that starts down that slippery slope of violating the Constitution in one area will increase the probability of violating it in other areas, stopping at nothing. If we don’t have that protection of the Fourth Amendment, we have nothing. Traveling, deemed a privilege by the president of the TSA, is only the beginning, and if this floodgate is opened, you are not secure from any government intervention. It should create fear in the heart of people because if the constitution is violated, it is no longer of any use concerning protection of rights. The sudden new measures that have rightfully outraged passengers and inflamed newspaper writers have changed nothing, a clear indication that the government is being very purposeful about this. Any passenger who is on the no-fly list cannot obtain information as to the reasons why he is on that black list nor can that person challenge the TSA’s decision to ban that would be passenger from boarding an airplane. The TSA’s decision is final and the possibility of appeal almost vain.
Let us remember the potent warning of Benjamin Franklin, a major influence in the writing of the Constitution, “Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” As the government is violating the Constitution, thereby sacrificing your Fourth Amendment rights for the sake of safety and security, have your constitutional rights become an endangered species?
Works Cited
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