Airports all across the nation are investing in full-body scanners to help prevent terrorists and other criminals from bringing weapons onto planes. The scanners are widely controversial, seen by critics as an invasion of privacy -- the images produced by the scanners allow those viewing them to see airline passengers as they would appear naked.
Though most Americans support the use of the scanners, a growing number of airline passengers are starting to have doubts about the machines.
Dane County Regional Airport is likely to get the scanners sometime soon, and General Mitchell in Milwaukee already has them. If Wisconsin travelers refuse to do the full-body scan, they must be patted down before boarding the plane -- a practice that is getting more invasive for many airline passengers across the nation, who often describe the pat-downs as "groping" or as coming close to what many consider sexual harassment in any other context.
Most believe the scanners are necessary -- but do they meet the standards set by our laws, and most importantly by the Constitution? Hardly. The Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution reads: "The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized."
The question before us is this: is the use of scanners a violation of a person's privacy rights, an unreasonable search of a person without just cause? If the scanners are being used on every passenger, then yes, it is. Checking the bags of every person boarding the plane is one thing -- even metal detectors make sense to an extent.
But these invasive searches -- allowing airport personnel to see its passengers in the nude or to be nearly groped in order to fly, is an unreasonable approach to trying to figure out if anyone flying that day is carrying a weapon. If there is reason to suspect a person might be carrying a weapon, a reasonable search of that person might be using these scanners. But until there is a just -- and reasonable -- cause to do so, the use of these scanners on all passengers violates the Fourth Amendment.
Airports all across the nation are investing in full-body scanners to help prevent terrorists and other criminals from bringing weapons onto planes. The scanners are widely controversial, seen by critics as an invasion of privacy -- the images produced by the scanners allow those viewing them to see airline passengers as they would appear naked.cheap Gatwick Parking
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