[rottencupcakes]

I agree with you. But now that government is meddling, the waters get murky. All of a sudden it's your government telling you that you cannot fly and not United Airlines or SFO simple refusing service to a customer or two.

If nude scanning is a constitutional infraction, why didn't anyone mention this in response to the 'unreasonable searches and seizures' of my 'effects' (x-ray'ing my personal belongings, rummaging through my bag, etc etc) that has been going on for decades?

If you only focus your outrage on this trivial, narrow issue, you are being played.

[mseebach]

It's the word "unreasonable".

Regular x-rays and metal detectors can be shown to have stopped a very large proportion of items immediately threatening to passenger safety, and are thus to be considered reasonable. Backscatter have no such advantage (in fact, it seems unlikely they could even have stopped 9/11) and are therefore considered unreasonable.

YMMV, but I don't consider myself "played" for subjecting myself to the less intrusive searches. I do feel like an idiot having to pull out my laptop and toothpaste and having to throw out any drinks.

[astine]

"Regular x-rays and metal detectors can be shown to have stopped a very large proportion of items immediately threatening to passenger safety"

By that logic however, x-rays machines and metal detectors should never have been permitted in the first place because when they were first introduced they had no track record of utility either. You're right that it's the definition of the word "unreasonable" that's the sticky issue, but I don't think that it's as clear cut as you say it is..

[whackedspinach]

This is exactly what I have been saying. I don't really understand why no one thinks this is a problem. I remember asking my mother as a kid why they were allowed to do that (having learned my Bill of Rights). She's a prosecutor, so I figured she knows the law. she said (and still does) that it is all there for our protection. If I was going to blow something up, I'd use a bus, train, or even the security line at the airport. Why bother with getting through security?

I'm not sure about international travel, but searches for domestic flights are unconstitutional.

Now, how do we effectively fight that?

[pinchyfingers]

Why bother getting through security indeed. There are plenty of targets available to would be terrorists. Airport security has nothing to do with safety and everything to do with the self interest of bloated bureaucracy and government contractors. One of the driving forces behind the body scanners is the Chertoff Group, owned by the former Homeland Security secretary. Security measures are a money grab and mechanism for keeping people fearful and obedient, not a way of keeping anyone safe.