Lawsuit Over Police Searches At the Airport Can Proceed (youtube.com)
Eric Andre. Atlanta.
Boarding, and then appears some officers who say Hey can I search you bags? Not by TSA, but by local police.
The police say he gave consent for the search, but he said he didn't really. And people in that situation probably usually feel they're under duress to assent to a search. As you're boarding. ‘If I say no, will he keep me from getting on the flight?’ The police get on the other side of TSA and wait until a person is boarding (ie wait until they have them where they want them, ie under natural duress) and stop the person and say Can we search you. The average person at the airport, knowing how things are these days at the airport (where freedom of speech and expression is accepted to be limited, there's words and jokes you can't say there). Police could instead have done this at the curb outside the airport, and people would be in a different position.
The procedure directs the counties officers to violate passengers' Fourth Amendment rights. Unreasonable searches and seizures.
It appears the police thought they could do this with impunity, Lehto said.