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| In formal attire, obviously. |
(Philthadelphia) Fliers may have a tough time recovering damages for invasive screenings at U.S. airport security checkpoints, after a federal appeals court on Wednesday said screeners are immune from claims under a federal law governing assaults, false arrests and other abuses.
In a 2-1 vote, the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia said Transportation Security Administration (TSA) screeners are shielded by government sovereign immunity from liability under the Federal Tort Claims Act because they do not function as “investigative or law enforcement officers.”
Pure legal geniuses, right there.
So if they're not investigating anything, and not acting as law enforcement officers, what authority do they have to conduct a search of persons or belongings? Federal law now says "None, whatsoever."
And who am I, or who is any mere TSA flunkie, to argue with or contradict the considered jurisprudence of two sitting federal appellate judges? I ask you.
IANAL, but in declaring the TSA "not investigative or law enforcement officers", the 3rd Circus has cleared the way for passengers to ignore their requests, on the grounds that the federal court has denied them any legal or law enforcement jurisdiction over private citizens.
Thanks, guys. Now I have federal legal precedent to tell you to go self-fornicate.
They can't have it both ways, and the court, in shielding the merry band of incompetents from any shred of civil tort liability, has now cut the TSA's enforcement balls off in this case. That's going to leave a mark, albeit a tiny one, given the size of the appendage in question.
Unless SCOTUS takes up this or a similar case in next year's session, this is now settled law until further notice.
And they can't walk this one back unless SCOTUS intervenes, which they won't unless another Circuit rules the other way on this. (Once you have two or more dueling circuits at opposite conclusions, getting the case heard in SCOTUS becomes a near-certainty.)
The TSA are now, by federal ruling, "just a bunch of guys, with no legal authority to enforce anything on anyone, nor to investigate anything anywhere, at any time."
Well-played.
I love it when the federal government outsmarts itself. Dogberry lives!
You have to wonder if the parents of those judges in the 3rd Circuit had any children who lived.
But hey, black-robed @$$-clowns of the 3rd Circus Court: thanks for making the 9th Circus Court out here in Califrutopia look sane, rational, and circumspect by comparison!
And I quote the oft-stated opinion of WeaponsMan:
"No one good, decent, honest, competent, moral, ethical or intelligent has ever been employed at the TSA in any capacity whatsoever."
TSA employees are NOT and never have been law enforcement; DHS has pushed Congress for years to change that but they have declined to. It is why every airport I've ever been in has local police patrolling the airport and standing behind the screeners - the work around is that the cops will order you to do anything the screeners say, and THEY have the authority to force compliance.
ReplyDeleteWhat Jonathan said. The only thing that TSA has over you is the ability to delay you long enough to miss your flight. The cops assisting them fall under WeaponsMan’s description as well.
ReplyDeleteNatzsofast, Guido.
ReplyDeleteThe police can search you. They can detain or arrest you.
They are also fully liable for those actions.
What they cannot do is order you to submit to being groped by some third party, who is not a law enforcement officer, nor subject to civil liability.
A law enforcement officer may compel me to be searched, or detained, but they may not compel my indentured servitude to nor sexual battery by unsworn, unaccountable hired federal mall cops. Their legal authority cannot be delegated unless they're willing to deputize federal officers (which probably crosses the streams and violates about 27 laws, ordinances, policies, and codicils from the county courthouse to the US capitol) and also transmits all liability for their misconduct to those exact local officers and their agency and municipality in exactly 0.0 seconds, which they'll do, about the time Satan shops for ice skates.
At which point everyone refuses to submit to being fondled by the fat federal fucks, requires the actual law enforcement to do their duty within their policies, and subject to full legal recourse, and the TSA becomes the exact tits-on-a-bull they've always been.
Game over, problem solved, QED.
Yup. Wonder what would happen (with video partner) to some peasant who showed up NOT under the constraints of "must make flight so I will bow to 'authority'" and just said "No" & carried it through to the closing credits. Someone who literally had all the time needed, on purpose, no prohibited items, just a jogging suit & a ticket. Ya know, like setting up a Christian bakery shop... Asking for a friend.
ReplyDeleteICYMI: The Economist asserts our constitutional republic isn't a true democracy, and that's a problem: https://www.economist.com/leaders/2018/07/12/american-democracys-built-in-bias-towards-rural-republicans
ReplyDeleteClearly, they failed junior high civics, but important for the narrative being pushed by elites -- and their welfare state and related immigration policies...