[nikcub]

This story is told from a perspective that rather than being a right, flying and travel is a privilege awarded to those who satisfy the TSA

Who cares what the Behavior Detection Officer thought, he was wrong

Who cares what the screening machine thought he was carrying, it was wrong

Who cares what behavior the TSA officers and supervisors 'noted', they were also wrong

If a person cannot simply get up and leave the TSA area if they haven't been arrested, then the law is wrong.

If the TSA can't do their job without threatening the rights and freedom of movement of a large part of the population then they shouldn't be doing it at all. All this inconvenience for an organization that in its 12 years has yet to even catch a real terrorist.

[etchalon]

Flying is not even remotely a right.

Any airline, any airpot, any business period can refuse to provide you service for any non-protected reason (race, gender, etc.).

[asperous]

That's indeed correct. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 provides that service cannot be refused* on the "ground of race, color, religion, sex, or national origin", other than that it is really fair game.

In fact it is a right for businesses to choose who they want to serve. An airline that only flies costumed clients? 100% a right in this country. They can even decide who they consider costumed and who not.

* In research I discovered that it depends actually on the type of service. In California the Unruh Civil Rights Act catches all businesses; but federally only certain types of businesses must follow the discrimination rules. http://users.wfu.edu/zulick/341/civilrightsact1964.html

Airports are included in the Civil Rights Act because "it serves or offers to serve interstate travelers".

[einhverfr]

Note that in California the Unruh Act more or less states that businesses do not have a right to refuse service for anything not related to the business transaction. For example, the ACLU was successfully sued under the law for kicking off-duty police officers out of a seminar on police surveillance, and banks have been sued for denying loans to homeowners who expressed interests in running home-based day care centers.

[etchalon]

Ah, yes, the downvote.

For pointing out the actual, you know, law.

[Amadou]

You'll note that the government is inserted here, that Jetblue's determination that he couldn't fly was the result of government action. The government has a lot more rules about what it can't do to people than private business does.

[etchalon]

As was noted in the article, JetBlue made that determination on their own. You can chose to believe the government told him no, but you'd be ignoring the stated facts in and just making shit up.

[Amadou]

No, according to the second article they made their decision based on his state of mind after the government singled him out and messed with him. The government is directly responsible for that chain of events.

[etchalon]

But not the decision not to let him fly.

That he was agitated after the his ordeal is understandable, but so was JetBlue's decision not to let him board a plane.