New Petition + TSA Removes 91 Body Scanners

It’s been a crazy 2 years. I never really imagined myself as a civil rights advocate, but on November 16th, 2010, I found myself sitting in a South Beach bar unable to enjoy my evening because I was so disturbed by what had just occurred in our airports. I sat there thinking long and hard about how unbelievable it was that our government was now asking to photograph us naked if we wanted to enter an airport, and I eventually came to this poetic conclusion: “Fuck this shit!” I left my mostly-full drink on the bar and returned to my office at about 2 AM, and didn’t stop writing until the sun was brightly shining through my window. I made the 7 mile trek to the courthouse with my new documents on rollerblades across the Venetian Causeway, which is beautiful on a sunny day, in about 25 minutes. The friendly U.S. Marshalls for sure still know me as “the guy with the rollerblades.”

I’ve since had some crazy experiences (Getting kicked out of airports? Presenting my work to Congress? Seeing my name on Drudge Report?) and met some amazing people, who have encouraged and supported me to this 2 year anniversary. Our fight moves slowly, but I’m ready to keep going, thanks to you all!

Today, the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals, along with the Department of Homeland Security, will be opening packages with a brand new petition asking for judicial review of the TSA’s nude body scanner and genital inspection programs. This petition is the first to be filed in a Court of Appeals that squarely addresses the constitutionality of the body scanners, and will seek an immediate stay of the order. I’m excited that the merits of my case may finally be addressed! Documents are linked below.

Also, great news: the TSA has removed 91 scanners from active use, put into a notorous graveyard for expensive taxpayer-funded gadgets that the TSA refers to as a “storage room” in Texas. This storage room is the same place where the “puffer machines” of 2006 rotted until they were thrown out. My prediction is that these machines will never scan another person. It’s a great step forward!

Corbett v. DHS – Petition (.pdf)
Corbett v. DHS – Motion to Transfer (.pdf)
Corbett v. DHS – Motion to Stay (.pdf)

No Power But Petition Presses Onward

Just a quick note that electricity in lower Manhattan or not, the first draft of my new petition documents is completed. I’m going to spend the next couple of weeks adding sources and discussing with useful and interested parties, with a filing date of November 16th, 2012, which happens to be the 2-year anniversary of my first complaint and the very beginning of this blog!

Hard to believe it’s been 2 years!

Supreme Court Declines to Consider Whether Nude Body Scanners Deserve a Trial

I unfortunately just received news that the U.S. Supreme Court has declined to hear my appeal. My case against the body scanners was tossed by a U.S. District Court, and then appealed in and affirmed by the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals, under a law that the TSA interprets to mean, “Anything we write down cannot be fought in a trial court” — you know, the kind of court with a jury, discovery, witnesses, etc. — and must instead be fought in the U.S. Court of Appeals.

That’s the bad news. The good news is that the fight is not over, it simply must be continued without that jury, and with discovery and witnesses allowed to me at the discretion of the 11th Circuit (instead of by right, as a reasonable reader of the Constitution might assume that we had). I will have my 11th Circuit filing completed within the next 30 days. If you’d like to donate to this expensive effort, click the Donate button at the top right of the page.

I’ve heard from thousands of you over the last 2 years now. Thank you so much for the support, and let’s continue this fight together!

–Jon

Judge Orders Parties to Proceed in Corbett v. TSA

There are now three motions to dismiss both the federal and state defendants in my case against the TSA’s unlawful search and seizure of me at FLL airport last year.  They were filed between 1 and 3 months ago, with such absurd claims as, “We’re not law enforcement officers, but we were allowed to detain him” and “We’re allowed to read any documents he brought through the checkpoint on the off-chance that one of them will show he used a false ID.”

The judge has not yet ruled on any of these three motions, and there is no deadline for her to do so, however last week good news came as she ordered the parties to create a scheduling plan and submit other documentation that is required for the trial to proceed. It would seem unlikely for her to do such a thing if she were planning on tossing the case, and so I’m very much looking forward to reading her order denying the motions to dismiss.

Live In/Near Broward County? I Need Your Help!

[UPDATE: Thank you for the replies! I should be good now!]

In my lawsuit against the TSA, FLL’s airport owners, and the Broward County Sheriff’s Office, all parties have been served except the Sheriff. I thought it was peculiar that I contacted about a dozen professional process servers in Broward asking for a quote to serve the BSO and only 3 actually responded. One of them tried to serve the papers, but was turned away because Broward thought the paperwork was incomplete. A defendant, of course, doesn’t get the liberty of turning away paperwork because they don’t think it’s in order, but the process server refused to leave the documents on their desk and walk away — because the BSO licenses process servers, and they were worried they would lose their license.

Luckily, any private citizen (other than a party to the action) over the age of 18 can also serve these papers. So, if any of you are in the area and are willing to print a short document and drop it off on the desk of the BSO’s law department, preferably along with a “YOU GOT SERVED!,” please send me an e-mail: jon [at] fourtentech [dot] com.

Opposition Filed!

Thanks to those who responded so quickly! The final version of my opposition to their motion to dismiss is below.

Corbett v. TSA – Motion to Dismiss IV Opposition (.pdf)

Help Defeat the TSA’s Motion to Dismiss

After writing 24 pages on this one, I could use a few more eyes to help make sure I’m still making sense. No legal experience required — just let me know if you think the argument is compelling or could be improved (and how). The brief background is that the TSA has argued that it has the right to detain people and the right to read all of your documents when you go through the checkpoint, in addition to some jurisdictional arguments.

Corbett v. TSA – Motion to Dismiss IV Opposition – DRAFT (.pdf)
This is the main file to look at

Corbett v. TSA – Motion to Dismiss IV Opposition Declaration – DRAFT (.pdf)
Corbett v. TSA – Motion to Dismiss IV Opposition Exhibit A – DRAFT (.pdf)
These two files are referenced within the main file

Corbett v. TSA – Motion to Dismiss IV (.pdf)
Corbett v. TSA – Motion to Dismiss IV Declaration (.pdf)
These two files are the motion that I’m opposing

For any attorneys out there, replies on this blog will not be interpreted as legal advice.

Thanks for your help!

–Jon

So what’s it take to sue the TSA?

Every week or so I get an e-mail or a comment asking about suing the TSA, either to change policy (get rid of the scanners and pat-downs) or because of personal incidents (TSA screeners assaulting them, physically or sexually, stolen goods, false charges, etc.). Many of the stories are heartbreaking and all have been wronged by the TSA. I’m happy to share what I’ve learned, but my first question is: Are you ready for the fight? Here’s what it takes, assuming you don’t have a civil rights organization representing you and paying your way:

First, there are filing fees and other hard costs: printing (sometimes courts require up to 40 copies of a document!), mailing, travel, paid research databases, etc. So far, this has totaled in the four-figures range.

But, more importantly, there are the time costs. While writing a brief that has now reached 18 pages today, I was curious how much I’ve had to write so far in order maintain these actions against the TSA. I went through my all my Word documents in my TSA lawsuit folders, and the totals are:

U.S. District Court: 189 pages
11th Circuit Court of Appeals: 121 Pages
U.S. Supreme Court: 47 pages
—
Total: 357 pages

My writer friend tells me that typical for her industry is that a page takes an hour. With the research required for legal documents, I’d double that, and that doesn’t even take into account the time it took to put to research, create, and edit the awesome videos of the nude body scanners being defeated, not to mention the $0.99 sewing kit required to take down the $1 billion scanner fleet!

Taking this much time away from work is why I’m so grateful for the donations that many of you have sent, which allow me to continue to fight the TSA without ending up homeless. It’s a strong statement about our legal system that seeking justice for something so basic as “don’t take nude pictures of me” takes so much, and I’m not even close to finished. It’s also something to keep in mind if you want to sue the TSA but don’t want to pay a lawyer to do it for you (and can you imagine how much a lawyer would have billed to write 357 pages?): if you want into the legal side, be ready to have sore wrists.

But, if you just want to fight TSA thuggery in general, there is lots to be done. People are blogging, people are making videos, people are “traditional protesting” (flyers, tables, bullhorns, soapbox, etc.), people are contacting their representatives, people are donating money, people are talking to their friends and fellow travelers, and people are standing up and saying “no” (sometimes phrased as “I opt out!”). Hitting the TSA from all angles is the way to obtain change, and ALL of these are equally important tools in the fight. If you’ve participated, thank you, and feel free to share the creative ways you’ve found to protest the TSA in the comments to inspire others.

TSA: Search your iPhone? Yes we can!

The TSA has been tasked with finding “weapons, exposives, and incendiaries” and preventing them from making their way onto airplanes. See 49 CFR § 1540.5 (“Screening function means the inspection of individuals and property for weapons, explosives, and incendiaries.”) and ad nauseum court decisions. To that extent, the TSA can lawfully conduct an “administrative search” for only that purpose. This means that if they’re searching in a way that is intended to find evidence of other unrelated crimes (most often, finding small quantities of drugs), they’ve exceeded their authority and are conducting an unconstitutional search with neither consent nor warrant. Courts have repeatedly slapped down evidence found by TSA searches not aimed at finding WEI as inadmissable.

Last week, the government filed a motion to dismiss my lawsuit relating to them illegally detaining me for refusing to let them grope me (now the fourth motion to dismiss so far in this case, none so far yet granted). Part of the suit was that while detaining me, the TSA went through every inch of my bags, including reading my books, credit cards, and anything else that had print on it. Naturally, this offers no value to the search for WEI, but you could see on their faces that they were so upset that someone would dare to say no to being groped that they wanted to find evidence of any crime just to “show me what happens” when people argue with their authoritah.

This motion to dismiss stated that the TSA has the right to search bags not only for WEI, but also for “identification media.” They reason that a terrorist might be using a fake ID, and therefore if they can find a fake ID in your bag, they might stop a terrorist from boarding an airplane.

This term (“identificaiton media”) is not defined in their motion or in their internal policy that discusses it. At the least, they claim ID cards, credit cards, and the like are covered. What about a bank statement, insurance bill, or official letter? Often times a DMV will ask for something along those lines as proof of your identification. How about those prescription bottles? Everything has your name on it and nothing looks “suspicious” about the pills inside, yeah? What about every other document? Might have to read it to make sure it’s not a bank statement, bill, official letter, etc. What about turning on your iPhone to see what name shows up in there? You laptop will presumably identify you and all your e-mail “aliases,” right? And what are you doing with that “suspicious” amount of cash? A terrorist might deal in cash, after all.

Make no mistake: the TSA will use this policy to justify any search of your belongings, including checking out the pictures of your wife on your cell phone, “investigating” your credit cards and bank accounts (stealing iPads was so last year, bank fraud is the new thing), and doing whatever they can to find evidence of any impropriety whatsoever, at which point the police are called. At that point, if you forgot to pay that traffic ticket, you forgot about the half-gram of medicinal marijuana you left in your pants pocket, or if you’re just generally pissed off about your rights being shredded (or in TSA parlance, “disorderly” and “interfereing with checkpoint screening”), you’re going to jail.

All this, ladies and gentlemen, is to ensure compliance. Don’t want to be groped? You better go through this radiation machine and let us take a nude picture. Don’t want the TSA up in your iPhone? They only save that search for the “troublemakers.” Just do what you’re told, don’t argue, and the TSA may let you pass.

This is truly “papers, please” — it can happen now on any mode of transportation, and if the search can include taking nude pictures of our bodies, touching our genitals, and reading our documents, there is truly no limit left on these searches. All that’s left are full strip searches and literally putting their fingers inside of us — oh wait, both have happened time and time again (from the last link: “I sobbed even louder as the woman, FOUR TIMES, stuck the side of her gloved hand INTO my vagina, through my pants. Between my labia.”). There should be no doubt left that this is not “for our safety.”

As a glimmer of hope, this “identification media” reasoning has already been declared unconstitutional by a federal judge! In US v. Fofana, the TSA had a man arrested after going through his bags and finding additional passports, then reading the passports and determining that they were fake. There was no possiblity that reading the passports would have resulted in discovering a bomb, and the TSA used the same “could have been someone other than the person he claimed to be” justification. U.S. District Judge Algenon L. Marbley suppressed the evidence, noting that the TSA “went beyond the permissible purpose of detecting weapons and explosives and was instead motivated by a desire to uncover contraband evidencing ordinary criminal wrongdoing.” However, the TSA apparently feels it can ignore the courts, as it did in the EPIC case.

Corbett v. TSA – Motion to Dismiss IV
Corbett v. TSA – Motion to Dismiss IV (Memorandum in Support)

TSA: We Can Detain You (…and other false statements)

I just filed my opposition to the TSA’s motion to dismiss my lawsuit for illegally detaining me in FLL airport. The TSA’s motion, as to be expected, was full of contradictions, failures at logic, and other absurdities. For example, in order to avoid liability under a statute that creates a cause of action against “any officer of the United States who is empowered by law to execute searches,” they argued that TSA screeners are not empowered to execute searches. (My response was substantially: “Great! Then I can ignore them when I see them in the airport, right?”)

But perhaps what stood out the most was their assertion that they constitutionally detained me. They freely admit that screeners are not law enforcement and have no power of arrest, but at the same time argue it was totally cool for them to hold me — because it was brief.

Either one has powers of arrest or one does not. It doesn’t become “ok” simply because you do it briefly. Once again, the TSA has asked the court to carve out a new exception to the law to allow for its thuggery. Here’s to hoping that U.S. District Judge Joan A. Lenard gives them the bench-slap that they deserve.

Corbett v. TSA – USA & TSA’s Motion to Dismiss (.pdf)
Corbett v. TSA – Opposition to USA & TSA’s Motion to Dismiss (.pdf)