The Corner

The TSA’s Cynical Security Theater

Critics of the Transportation Security Administration’s new body-image scanners and aggressive pat-downs wanted to make last Wednesday into a day of protest at airport security checkpoints. Not much happened, so “Blogger Bob” at the TSA Blog crowed that “opt out day has turned into a TSA appreciation day.” But one reason for the lack of opt-out protests could have been that there was nothing for travelers to opt out of — the TSA deactivated the scanners and associated pat-downs at some of the nation’s busiest airports. If that’s the case, the TSA is tacitly conceding that travelers don’t like the new system — and traveler anger is likely to grow, as the new scans and protests were only operable at less than one-fifth of airport security lanes in the first place.

Jonathan H. Adler is the Johan Verheij Memorial Professor of Law and the director of the Coleman P. Burke Center for Environmental Law at the Case Western Reserve University School of Law.
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