Travelers May Have No Legal Recourse for ‘Abusive’ Screenings
by Richard D’Ambrosio
According to the ruling, Transportation Security Administration (TSA) screeners are immune from abuse claims by travelers who feel they have had overly invasive searches performed on them. Photo: J.L.B / Shutterstock.com
A U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Transportation Security Administration (TSA) screeners are immune from abuse claims by travelers who feel they have had overly invasive searches performed on them.
In a 2-1 vote last Wednesday, the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia rejected the claims of business consultant Nadine Pellegrino, who filed a lawsuit in 2009, after an incident at Philadelphia International Airport in 2006. That suit was rejected by a District Court and Pellegrino appealed.
TSA screeners are not “investigative or law enforcement officers,” the District Court ruled this week, upholding TSA employee protections under the U.S. government’s sovereign immunity provisions. As a result, the Circuit Court affirmed the District Court’s judgment dismissing her lawsuit.
Despite the ruling, Circuit Judge Cheryl Ann Krause wrote that: “We are sympathetic to the concerns this may raise as a matter of policy, particularly given the nature and frequency of TSOs’ contact with the flying public. For most people, TSA screenings are an unavoidable feature of flying … and they may involve thorough searches of not only the belongings of passengers but also their physical persons — searches that are even more rigorous and intimate for individuals who happen to be selected for physical pat-downs after passing through a metal detector or imaging scanner,” Krause wrote.
“For these reasons, Congress may well see fit to expand the proviso or otherwise legislate recourse for passengers who seek to assert intentional tort claims against TSOs,” Krause wrote on behalf of the majority opinion.
This was the first such federal appeals decision on whether a waiver of immunity for investigative and law enforcement officers extended to screeners.
According to court filings, Pellegrino, 57, had been randomly selected for additional screening at the Philadelphia airport before boarding a US Airways flight to Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
When Pellegrino objected to the levels of further screenings, police were called in and she was arrested and eventually jailed for about 18 hours and criminally charged. She was acquitted at a March 2008 trial.
