Harvard Law Students Sue TSA

From the Harvard Law Record:

Two Harvard Law students have filed a federal lawsuit against the Transportation Security Administration that claims the use of 'nude body scanners' and new enhanced pat-down techniques at airport security checkpoints are unconstitutional.

Jeffrey Redfern '12 and Anant Pradhan '12 filed the lawsuit Monday in the District Court of Massachusetts. The complaint names Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano and TSA Administrator John Pistole as defendants. Beginning in March 2010, the TSA deployed 450 full-body scanners in airports throughout the country. Boston's Logan International Airport has 17 of the full-body scanners at issue in the lawsuit, according to the TSA's website.

The lawsuit claims the mandatory screening techniques violate the students' Fourth Amendment right against unreasonable search and seizure. The suit seeks a permanent injunction against the use of either screening method without reasonable suspicion or probable cause and a declaratory judgment stating that mandatory screening using these techniques is unconstitutional where probable cause or reasonable suspicion do not exist.

DOJ's 'Hotwatch' Real-Time Surveillance of Credit Card Transactions

This article by Christopher Soghoian discusses how law enforcement agencies routinely seek and obtain real-time surveillance of credit card transactions.  The accompanying PPT (in PDF form) can be found below:

DOJ powerpoint presentation on Hotwatch surveillance orders of credit card transactions

The TSA's False Tradeoff

by Bob Murphy at LewRockwell.com:

The national furor over the TSA's new procedures – culminating in yesterday's 'Opt Out Day' – has elicited the typical response from the bureaucracy and its apologists. Why, these invasive scans and 'enhanced pat-downs' are only for your good, in order to ensure safe flying. You don't want another attack, do you?

This is a false tradeoff. Especially in the long run, there is no tension between freedom and safety. If airport security were truly returned to the private sector, air travelers would achieve a much better balance of privacy and legitimate security measures.

Who is really stealing your privacy?

From CNN.com:

Privacy advocates are up in arms. They say the Obama administration is seeking to increase the government's surveillance powers. The White House is out to require internet companies to keep trapdoors so the government can read any and all messages.

Kevin Bankston of the Electronic Frontier Foundation called the proposal 'a drastic anti-privacy, anti-security, anti-innovation solution in search of a problem.' These privacy advocates remind me of someone who locks his front door only to return home and find that thieves have emptied his home through the back door and the windows he left wide open. These days, the main enemy of privacy is not Big Brother, but a whole bunch of Little Brothers: profit-making corporations.

See the rest of the article here.

Texas Supreme Court rules state workers' birth dates aren't public

From the Dallas Morning News:

The Texas Supreme Court ruled Friday that the public cannot have access to the birth dates of state employees through the Public Information Act.

The high court's majority sided with the Texas comptroller over the state attorney general and The Dallas Morning News in a major open records decision.

Because 'state employees' privacy interest substantially outweighs the minimal public interest in the information, we hold that disclosure of state employee birth dates would constitute a clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy,' wrote Chief Justice Wallace B. Jefferson.

Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts v. Attorney General of Texas and the Dallas Morning News

The physics and biology of the TSA's backscatter security scanners

From ars technica:

The recent deployment of backscatter scanning devices meant for airline passengers has caused controversies focused on both the privacy issues of the scans and the safety of the devices themselves (not to mention the unpleasant alternative of an aggressive frisking). The discussion of safety issues has been clouded by two competing narratives. On one side, there's radiation exposure that's comically low compared to what comes from simply boarding the aircraft and being lifted above a lot of the Earth's atmosphere. On the other, there are arguments that the sort of exposure generated by backscatter devices is somehow different.

State, local lawmakers seek alternatives to TSA airport screenings

From the Washington Times:

A coach-class rebellion against the Transportation Security Administration is brewing as state and local lawmakers challenge the agency's right to implement its invasive airport-safety protocols.

'I'd like to send Washington a clear signal that these aggressive pat-downs and body scanners may have crossed the line,' said Sean Paige, a member of the Colorado Springs City Council. 'We want to maintain airport security, but need to speak up for the passengers who come through our city.'

He has asked the Colorado Springs airport's aviation commission and director to prepare a briefing on a proposal to replace the TSA with a private security firm. The council is expected to hear the results in January, Mr. Paige said.

CNN Reporter Put On Watch List After Criticizing TSA

More from PrisonPlanet:

In light of new reports alleging that the TSA is creating a watch list of individuals who criticized the agency as a form of collective punishment, it’s revealing to note that CNN journalist Drew Griffin was also put on a TSA watch list immediately after he filed reports critical of the organization back in 2008.

As we highlighted earlier this week, a reported TSA memo was circulated at the height of last month’s opt out controversy which “officially addresses those who are opposed to, or engaged in the disruption of the implementation of the enhanced airport screening procedures as ‘domestic extremists’.”

TSA jokes are funny if you're not the one being assaulted

I guess TSA jokes are funny if you're not the one being assaulted. From Politico.com:

'Everybody in Washington has been talking about the TSA,' said Lovett. 'TSA has been kind of a big story lately. A lot of people tonight have made some jokes about the TSA; I am, too. I don’t understand what all the fuss is about, you know. First of all, these things are designed to keep us safe. Second of all, it’s giving a way for, you know, defrocked priests to get their lives back together, give back to the community, lend a ... well, not lend a hand, but you know.'

Mother Kept In “Glass Cage” For Almost An Hour By TSA For Resisting Over Breast Milk

From PrisonPlanet:

Following their own guidelines will not get you anywhere because they make the rules up as they go along.

The latest case of TSA tyranny to hit the headlines comes in the form of a young mother who was subjected to enhanced groping and then shut inside a screening box for almost an hour by agents after she refused to allow them to put her breast milk through an x-ray device, a legitimate request that is even written into the TSA’s own guidelines.

The ordeal, which took place at Phoenix airport earlier this year, was captured on security cameras, which Stacey Armato, who is also a lawyer, gained access to, but only after repeated requests and careful editing by the TSA had taken place.

After being told that her breast milk might have to be put through an x-ray scanner, Ms Armato attempted to show the TSA agents a print out of their own guidelines allowing non x-ray screening for breast milk. This act of serious disobedience resulted in the agent pushing Ms Armato into a glass cage, telling her “to be quiet if you know what’s good for you”, while calling for “back up”.

New East Palo Alto license plate readers will run plates through crime databases

From the Peninsula Press:

By the new year, the East Palo Alto Police Department will be using automatic license plate readers to identify law breakers.

The City Council has agreed to pay for the new devices – including two sets of high-speed cameras and sophisticated computers – with a $37,540 grant from the U.S. Department of Justice.

More from the article:

The car-mounted devices can automatically scan all vehicles’ plates within a certain radius of the patrol car, run the information through pre-selected databases and report back immediately to officers if a car is stolen or wanted, according to the East Palo Alto police department. Last year, East Palo Alto tested a license plate reader owned by the San Mateo Sheriff’s Office. Davis said the results were positive.

...

Police surveillance systems can be controversial. Advocates say they help solve crimes and make people feel safer, especially when residents know the devices are present. Critics worry about invasions of privacy. Most companies that sell traffic cameras and license plate readers recommend that governments advertise the installment of their systems.

Is there really any doubt that these readers will be used to mass scan as many vehicles as possible? What ever happened to probable cause? There are some serious privacy issues here that will undoubtedly be raised as the readers go live.

Black Eyes Peas singer Fergie gets TSA airport security treatment at LAX

From the Mail Online:

Being a celebrity gets you a lot of free stuff and extra privileges - but not when going through airport security.

Black Eyed Peas singer Fergie had to experience the new stricter TSA security rules yesterday at Los Angeles International Airport as she headed to board a flight to New York.

The 35-year-old star had to de-layer and go through the new full body scanners just like everybody else.

I gotta feeling (yeah, I went there) that the TSA is grateful she didn't opt-out. ;-)