Court asked to order Napolitano to pay up
Bob Unruh - WND
A new lawsuit has been filed against Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and John Pistole of the Transportation Security Administration asking the federal court to order them to pay financial damages to airline passengers who were groped or scanned as part of a plan authorized by President Obama to create nearly nude images of passengers or feel their private parts.
The lawsuit was filed by officials at the Rutherford Institute, who earlier filed a lawsuit on behalf of pilots also subjected to the enhanced scanning and pat-down procedures implemented by the TSA in recent weeks.
The Fourth Amendment complaint explains that a woman who survived a mastectomy was groped by federal agents while her teen son was told he was exempted from a physical search because he did not have "boobs," a male traveler was subjected to a physical manipulation of his testicles and a young girl was scanned with radiation without her parents authorizing – or even knowing.
Join tens of thousands of Americans in a petition demanding action against the intrusive airport screening procedures implemented by Janet Napolitano and send a letter to Congress, President Obama and others telling them exactly what you think about the issue.
"No American should be forced to undergo a virtual strip search or be subjected to such excessive groping of the body as a matter of course in reporting to work or boarding an airplane when there is no suspicion of wrongdoing," said John W. Whitehead, president of The Rutherford Institute. "To do so violates human dignity and the U.S. Constitution, and goes against every good and decent principle this country was founded upon."
He said Americans aren't deprived of their privacy rights when they enter an airport or board an airplane.
Such procedures, the lawsuit explains, violate the U.S. Constitution's prohibition on unreasonable searches and seizures. The complaint asks that DHS and TSA be prohibited from using AIT technology and enhanced pat-downs as the first line of airport security screening in the United States.
Rutherford Institute describes the procedures as "profane, degrading, intrusive, and indecent."
The plaintiffs are:
- Adrienne Durso, a recent breast cancer survivor, who repeatedly and aggressively was groped by TSA agents in the area where she had undergone a mastectomy, even after informing agents of her condition. The Institute explained Durso's teenage son who accompanied her allegedly was informed by TSA agents that he was not being patted down because he "did not have boobs."
- Chris Daniels, a business traveler, aggressively and repeatedly was touched in his genital area after initial screening showed an abnormality in his genitals that was the result of a childhood injury. When Daniels asked to leave the security area and forego flying rather than submit to the intimate groping, he was refused permission and the search proceeded.
- C.N., a 12-year-old girl traveling with family friends, was pulled out of line while passing through security and subjected to a whole body imaging scan without the knowledge or consent of her adult guardians, leaving her frightened and traumatized.
"Plaintiffs all desire to protect themselves and their fellow travelers from security risks while flying," the lawsuit explains. "At the same time, however, plaintiffs are unwilling to undergo unnecessarily invasive and degrading practices merely in the name of security if doing so would violate constitutionally protected rights. [Whole body imaging] scanners and enhanced pat-down procedures, when employed as primary means of airline traveler screening, violate such rights."
"WBI scanners use technology that enables screeners to see beneath individuals' clothing and view a graphic and intrusive level of detail, including the contours of a person's genitalia," the lawsuit warned.
And under the new pat-down policies, "the officer runs his or her open hands and fingers over most parts of an individual's body including the breasts… Additionally, officers slide their hands all the way from the inner thigh up to the groin until the hand cannot venture any higher because it is literally stopped by the person's groin.
"As part of the enhanced pat-down, a TSA officer will also insert his fingers into an individual's pants and move his fingers, while still inside the pants, around the entire circumference of the waistband," the lawsuit said.
The processes demanded by the government are no more or less than a "government-imposed search and seizure."
They are, the lawsuit explains, "patently unreasonable and violative of the Fourth Amendment."
Besides calling a halt to the use of the procedures, the lawsuit asks for damages to the plaintiffs for "unconstitutional conduct, including compensatory and all other measures of damages legally allowed."
Whitehead earlier told WND that the enhanced search procedures are a result of Obama's policies, since a proposal in Congress hasn't yet been acted on.
The issue of the invasive searches has erupted into headlines and protests during the last few weeks as the agency rolled out new requirements that demand passengers go through a scanning process through which essentially nude images are produced for TSA agents to screen, or submit to a hands-on full-body pat-down that includes agents touching private areas of the passengers' bodies.
There also have been announced state plans to prosecute TSA agents who violate state pornography or sexual assault laws, and doctors have warned of a long list of contagious diseases agents could pass from one passenger to another in the process. There also have been warnings the scanning machines could cause cancer.
Further, a petition, already signed by tens of thousands, was launched demanding action against the intrusive airport screening procedures implemented by Janet Napolitano, and a
Dec. 6, 2010