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TSA Screeners Win Immunity From Abuse Claims, Court Rules (reuters.com)
Mr.Intel writes from a report via Reuters: "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," reports Reuters. In a 2-1 vote, the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia said Transportation Security Administration (TSA) screeners are shielded from liability under the Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA) because they do not function as "investigative or law enforcement officers."
The decision, the first on the issue by a federal appeals court, was a defeat for Nadine Pellegrino, a business consultant from Boca Raton, Florida. "She and her husband had sued for false arrest, false imprisonment and malicious prosecution over a July 2006 altercation at Philadelphia International Airport," reports Reuters. According to court papers, Pellegrino had been randomly selected for additional screening at the Philadelphia airport before boarding a U.S. Airways flight to Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Pellegrino, then 57, objected to the invasiveness of the search, but conditions deteriorated and she was later jailed for about 18 hours, the papers show. Criminal charges were filed, and Pellegrino was acquitted at a March 2008 trial.
The decision, the first on the issue by a federal appeals court, was a defeat for Nadine Pellegrino, a business consultant from Boca Raton, Florida. "She and her husband had sued for false arrest, false imprisonment and malicious prosecution over a July 2006 altercation at Philadelphia International Airport," reports Reuters. According to court papers, Pellegrino had been randomly selected for additional screening at the Philadelphia airport before boarding a U.S. Airways flight to Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Pellegrino, then 57, objected to the invasiveness of the search, but conditions deteriorated and she was later jailed for about 18 hours, the papers show. Criminal charges were filed, and Pellegrino was acquitted at a March 2008 trial.
i guess pretty soon every kiddy fiddler and other person who is into indecent assault will be working for the TSA, paid for by the US government. Great work.
If you see a TSA screener get in an accident, help the other person first, even if their car is burning. If you serve a TSA screener in a restaurant, make sure they wait a long time for stale dogfood. Ask them if they like to abuse the public if you see them in uniform off the job. Ostracism and public humiliation can be powerful tools for good.
If they're not "investigative or law enforcement officers", then they can not detain you, and you should be able to walk right past the security checkpoint.
If you told someone back in the 90's that in order to get on a flight now you'd have to give a 3D scan of your naked body they'd accuse you of being some conspiracy tinfoil hat nutter who smokes too much weed.
I would assume, as they are not investigative or law enforcement officials, then they have no power to detain, arrest, require information, etc?
Nice to know..
in that they have immunity from behind held accountable from breaking the law. The worse thing though for the TSA is that they have less training and don't have to take an oath like cops do so this is even worse.
Then what is their function?
Security theater.
This is why I no longer fly. When the government treats you as a criminal, even though you've done nothing wrong, and you have no recourse, we've reach an Orwellian state.
The best thing people can do is not fly and let the airlines fall apart.
But they won't. As we see every day, people are too stupid to say no to injustices such as this. They'll gladly endure every imaginable humiliation because their government says it's for their protection.
"investigative or law enforcement officers." Nope they don't, I am sure that some are good workers just trying to do a job. But now what do we do with the criminals, pervs and thieves?
;)
Oh that is right, they work for the government so none of them are criminals, pervs or thieves! Besides why should ordinary people have any recourse.
Just my 2 cents
Given that I cannot ever recall seeing one of these, they must have been eminently forgettable. On the other hand, the sheer volume of spam _about_ Creimer has
a) made him look like a victim of targeted harassment, and
b) been more memorable and disruptive than anything he did.
Given that the justification for this behaviour is that Creimer's behaviour was an abuse of Slashdot, critical self reflection doesn't seem to be a strong suit of whomever is posting the anti-Criemer spam.
a sub set of the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia. So I think (not a lawyer) that an appeal can be made to the entire 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia. So this may not be the final outcome. Time will tell.
;)
Just my 2 cents
Sovereign immunity confuses the heck out of me. The idea that law enforcement is immune to prosecution is preposterous. The very concept seems to violate the 5th amendment to the constitution. Someone needs to hold them accountable.
No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law ; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.
It seems quite obvious to me that someone having the power to hold someone for 18 hours arbitrarily is not someone you want immune from prosecution. I get that the government doesn't want every criminal suing the police because they can, but the current situation seems ripe for abuse. A TSA screener should not hold that kind of power. Maybe we need to permit liability in the event that the person is acquitted or charges dropped, like what happened here?
Yep. I drive. Upcoming events in California in November may make me make an exception, but maybe just won't go. Dunno. Having 4th Amendment rights violated repeatedly (Judge Napolitano, the Fox News legal consultant, says its absolutely a violation of the 4th Amendment for the gov't to be doing this - the airlines could do it, but gov't hired officials can't legally do it) rubs me the wrong way, plus when I do travel, I usually have along a piece of electronics that is 1) essential to the reason I fly, 2) is intrinsic to the enjoyment of the activity I'm traveling to and 3) is no longer available at any price other than if I could maybe buy a used one from somebody, the availability not being guaranteed. Soooo... I don't need anyone handling it other than me, inspecting it, maybe dropping it, or in checked baggage (although I never do that, but sometimes the overheads are too small to accommodate it so my carry-ons end up with the checked baggage where they can maybe be stolen, lost, or crushed)
Sooo... if I go at all anymore, I almost every time will drive. They'll have to chase me down at 80 mph on I-10 to feel me up or screw-up my precious electronics. It will be in the trunk and as safe as I am. I wreck sufficiently to harm it, I'm probably more worried about my hair, teeth, and eyes all over the highway.
we did exactly what we wanted them to do. We freaked the hell out, got involved in several pointless wars that are killing our nation (our infrastructure crumbles while we waste trillions in Iraq/Afghanistan). They played us like a harp.
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the tsa are rent a cops with gov jobs / unions. When the tsa took over the took on a on the old rent a cops that used to the same job.
I've always assumed it was just a welfare program to keep otherwise useless and incompetent citizens off the streets. I mean, what would they do otherwise? The world only needs so many telephone sanitizers.
never drink kool-aid from a big vat
I get what you are saying, at least as far as Sanders. But what if it were Trump?
Have you heard of the trolley problem (in ethics)? I know which way I'd go.
What the ruling means is that they're an unaccountable extrajudicial agency with similar powers and resources to investigative and law enforcement officers (and they can and are being used to harass and interfere with journalists and lawyers working on human rights cases in the public interest).
In true "poetic justice irony," what US citizens tolerate being done to foreigners eventually comes back home to affect US citizens (Remember the extraordinary rendition "black site" run by the Chicago police?). The USA is turning into one of those banana republics that it originally spent US tax dollars to create at the behest of the corporations (The first one was Honduras).
Debate is a form of harassment. Do not question my truth.
I have a feeling that this will get appealed. I will only be concerned about with the final decision from the appellate court and/or Supreme Court.
"No one is above the law"
What fucking bullshit, America, you are a liar of a nation....
That's still a pretty nasty attitude.
Yes it is though you can make an argument that they are simply reaping what they've sown. This administration has been, ahem... less than tolerant of others, so it's somewhat ironic that they would get upset when it happens back at them. I'm not saying the behavior was right or should be condoned but I do admit to a bit of schadenfreude when I heard about it. To paraphrase Chris Rock, I'm not saying it's right but I understand...
If there is someone in a restaurant that you don't like, take a deep breath, suppress your penchant for political belligerence, and mind your own business.
That is the appropriate and civil behavior. It would be nice if our current president and his cronies would return the favor.
... no accountability.
If they are not law enforcement, then I would assume they have less latitude when it comes to detaining/abusing citizens. Correct me if I'm wrong, but this would put them on equal footing with private security. If you are private security, and you detain someone for 18 hours without calling the police you are probably looking a kidnapping charge.
they do not function as "investigative or law enforcement officers."
So they're not enforcing any laws by "screening" people and detailing + questioning suspicious individuals: what?
Sure and the right never does that. Tell you what, go ahead and tell a conservative christian that you are gay and that jesus is a lie and see what happens to you.
Conservative/libertarian and (by some definitions) Christian here, and the worst that I will do, depending on how well I know you, is to offer you historical evidence of His existence, as well as that of formerly "gay" people whom He had delivered from this and all of the rest of their sin, even though some of them weren't living accordingly at the time. Oh, and I will pray for you. What I will not do, however, is to condone nor to participate in beliefs or actions I know to be sin. For instance, I will not attend your so-called "gay wedding" nor your "Jesus Never Existed" conferences. I will not pretend to agree with your beliefs nor your lifestyle, if either or both are sinful and/or stupid. But I will tolerate you. For two reasons. One, you are my neighbor, and God commanded that we love our neighbor. Second, God may yet one day reveal Himself to you and make you His child, and, therefore, a brother or sister to every other one of His children.
Nonaggression works!
Not at the border,
Not CBP. TSA. They operate at every commercial airport. And to a lesser degree, anywhere within the US transportation system.
Have gnu, will travel.
You lose all your rights the moment you set foot inside an airport. It does not matter what is right, fair, or logical. This is how it works, now.
They can detain you, humiliate you, grope you, force you to undress, photograph you nude, expose you to cancer-causing radiation, etc., and there isn't a darn thing you can do about it.
This goes for your kids, as well.
I don't understand why people are so willing to put up with this.
Sure and the right never does that. Tell you what, go ahead and tell a conservative christian that you are gay and that jesus is a lie and see what happens to you.
You get blessed and a promise of prayer for your eternal soul? Oh the horror. ;)
Comment removed based on user account deletion
The way Raenex has framed these statements, closes the door to any reasonable discord.
I stated my case plainly and with supporting references, in response to a one-sided diatribe against the right.
Your defense of the intolerant muslim ban is to say that, yes, you are intolerant?
Your defense of mass importation of an intolerant and violent culture is... to say to not do so would be intolerant?? All this concern for LGBT and women's rights flies out the window when it comes to this issue. Strange, isn't it?
You're just making shit up.
All my statements were supported by references. Who's the one attempting reasonable discord? Certainly not you.
I don't see anything on the "left" that is attempting selective immigration by religion or origin
Oh, really?
You provide no argument to oppose the claim or defend LGBT people, but just point out that you are absolutely and certainly ostracizing at least the trans portion of those. Isn't this simply confirming your intolerance?
I made a case that the defense of LGBT issues has gone well past the point of reasonableness. You think it's "intolerance" that biological women don't want to have biological men who "identify" as women hanging around them with their genitals hanging out. Does this seem reasonable to you?
Where was BLM mentioned?
That's what has pushed the whole "police brutality" narrative for the past several years.
Are you rounding them all up under the generic "the left" again?
"The left" has indeed adopted and heavily pushed the phony Black Lies Matter narrative, which itself was founded by leftists who idolized the black nationalist, communist, and fugitive cop-killer Assata Shakur.
The article you use as evidence states that there was bias found in police use of force.
A whopping 18%. Now let's talk about how blacks commit many times more violent crime than whites, which is their real problem. Less crime, less interaction with the police, less black on black crime.
If they're illegals, they can't vote.
You completely ignored the part about the US Census. Why should illegals help determine the outcome of the Congress and the Electoral College?
Furthermore, illegals technically "can't work" either, yet they do so via fraudulent means.
How does that relate to voter disenfranchisement, which you have not commented on?
I commented that minorities, who are supposedly being disenfranchised, actually have majority support for voter id laws. Disenfranchisement happens when people who are not eligible to vote do so, by usurping rights exclusively limited to citizens.
Yes, abortion is a divisive issue, but you're using it to wedge us apart here.
I'm not the one who brought it up. I was responding to somebody using it to tar the right as "intolerant" of "womens rights", while ignoring the human life being terminated. Of course it's a complicated issue, and you can make a reasoned case for either side.
I don't know how we'll ever heal this country
I don't know either. We certainly won't by harassing
So the left thinks that, because they are slightly more tolerant than the right (which is highly debatable, btw), they can go running around acting like their crap doesn't stink and believing that everyone who doesn't agree with them is automatically a bigoted racist? How'd that work out in the last presidential election?
The thing I find amazing is that, even though the left's high-and-mighty attitude toward others got DONALD FREAKING TRUMP elected, they still continue to have this same ridiculous attitude. You want Trump for another term? Keep it up.
If they are not cops, I do not have to obey orders
Thanks!@!!
What about people from outside the US? Has the number of tourists visiting the US decreased over the recent years, due to US immigration and screening procedures?
Slashdot, fix the reply notifications... You won't get away with it...
"...objected to the invasiveness of the search, but conditions deteriorated and she was later jailed..."
WTF happened here?
Bob Stein, http://bobste.in
Bitch got lucky. Here's the case - http://www2.ca3.uscourts.gov/o...
If that TSA agent had showed up, she'd probably be in jail for a while and now with a violent criminal record.
I think the judges understood that she was being a bitch and just because her case was dismissed didn't entitle her to a lottery winning. They effectively gave her the finger. I just don't see where they were out of line, she was out of line. System worked.
That's because he's got them all busy making license plates.
(Readers right of the pond may substitute "sewing mailbags")
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
"Donald J. Trump is calling for a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States, except ones from countries where he owns hotels, until our country's representatives can figure out what is going on."
FTFY
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."