> -----Original Message----- > From: Loathe [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > Sent: Saturday, August 02, 2008 2:42 AM > To: CF-Community > Subject: Re: Bush: Laptops = WMD. YOUR Laptop. > > You agree to be searched and monitored when you buy a plane ticket. > > I don't like it, but it's the way it is.
While I agree completely that private enterprise can sometimes defer constitutional rights (as for example when a hotel retains the right to enter "your" room or a restaurant prevents you from preaching a sermon to its patrons) I don't believe this is the case. As with Free Speech the constitution does not describe how private enterprise must act but rather how the government must act. In this case the airline might be a private enterprise (although that's debatable considering the tax-payer money involved in them) but it's the government controlling the searches. Further than that this ruling specifically allows for government officials to perform an illegal search-and-seizure and transfer any information from that illegal search to any other government agency. The search agreement you make for the airlines is for the safety of the other passengers. For example, if an airline search finds a large knife in your checked luggage, they do nothing - you can't use it to harm other passengers. If they find a large knife in your pocket, they confiscate it - you could use it to harm other passengers. Now, what if the baggage handlers find two books on making bombs and a copy of the Koran? In my understanding they could not confiscate the material. They might, possibly (I'm not sure) request a further search of the passengers carry-on, but they couldn't actually take it or refuse you passage. With this ruling they could confiscate the material (and anything else in your possession) copy it, transfer it to as many agencies as they wish and keep it for as long as they want. Coupled with other Bush "security initiatives" they could then institute a warrantless wire tap on your phone. They could, under the patriot act, without a warrant get your lending history from your local library. They could, in fact, detain and question you without charges indefinitely. I would argue that the initial, narrowly-defined search (the domain of passenger safety for that flight) is legal, but transfer of information from that search to any other government agency, using that search for purposes other than airline safety, sezuire of materials not related to passenger safety - all of those would be illegal under the constitution. It's like when Bill Gannon was explaining (warranted) searches to a class of cadets: if you get a warrant to look for a stolen piano and find a bag of pot in a desk drawer, it's inadmissible because you did not truly expect to find the piano in the desk drawer. Joe Friday approved whole-heartedly. I don't think he would approve of this. Jim Davis ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Adobe® ColdFusion® 8 software 8 is the most important and dramatic release to date Get the Free Trial http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;203748912;27390454;j Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/message.cfm/messageid:265171 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.5
