by Christopher Ott, Communications Director, ACLU of Massachusetts
Government agents should not have the right to seize property from travelers at the airport without reasonable suspicion of a crime, like they did with David House.
David is a 24-year-old activist who lives in Cambridge. After questioning him about his involvement with the legal support network for accused WikiLeaks source Bradley Manning, Homeland Security agents actually confiscated his laptop, camera, and flash drive–for nearly two months–even though David had done nothing wrong and Homeland Security had no reason to suspect him of wrongdoing.
The government eventually returned David House’s property–after the ACLU sent a letter demanding its return–but that isn’t enough.
We filed a lawsuit this morning in federal court in Boston challenging the search and seizure of David’s electronics. The ACLU wants the return or destruction of personal data still in government custody, and we want to know what’s been done with it.
Of course there’s a larger principle at stake. Targeting people for unlawful searches and seizures based on who they know or what lawful activities they participate in is unconstitutional and un-American. Given that so many people now carry a cell phone or laptop while traveling, with information they might not want to share with government officials (such as financial records, contact lists, years of personal correspondence, family photos, or proprietary employer data), we need to have safeguards to ensure that this kind of fishing expedition does not happen to others.
You can learn more about the case at aclum.org/house.
I’m glad you guys are suing about this. As far as I can tell, the right to be free from unreasonable search and seizure has been almost completely destroyed by the TSA and its post-9/11 security theater. I’m sick of seeing youtube videos of babies and toddlers getting manhnandled by TSA screeners, or elderly people humiliated and asked to publicly disrobe in order to get on a plane. I don’t think these measures make us any safer, and even if they did, I would still think they should be abandoned because they’re un-American and appear unconstituional. I’s like to see this be one of the two or three top priorities of the ACLU, and would gladly start donating to the organization again if you seem committed to making progress on this stuff. Both the TSA and Homeland Security generally strike me as both a waste of money and a threat to civil liberties. It’s a huge disgrace, and I’d love for someone to really do something about it.
The tone of it is a little in-your-face, but a reason.com blogger wrote a nice summary a few months ago of what the ACLU has been doing about the ineffective and invasive TSA scanners and pat-down searches:
http://reason.com/blog/2010/12/13/why-was-the-aclu-silent-about
I realize that there’s not a lawsuit in that mix yet, but it can take time to find the ideal case that stands a good chance of winning and accomplishing something.
In the meantime, we’ve been objecting to these scanners and searches, pointing out their shortcomings, and, here in Massachusetts, we led the way in developing a Know Your Options at the Airport guide that our national office then adapted for use around the country.
More here:
http://aclum.org/tsa
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