Wednesday, June 15, 2011

A TSA lawsuit precedent

I missed this one, but in January, a woman settled a suit with the TSA over inappropriate touching. Most are decrying the paltry sum - which was recently revealed due to a FOIA request by The Smoking Gun, but one lawyer thinks this sets a good precedent. He concludes:
Rather than trying - as Texas, Utah, and other states are now doing - to pass legislation which may be ineffective or even counterproductive, the states might also consider what they could do to facilitate tort actions against the TSA. These steps might include setting up surveillance cameras in airports to provide evidence for such legal actions, legal opinions by state attorneys general helping to validate the law suits, the preparation of "Sue-The-TSA" kits with instructions and legal documents which could be used in the law suits, and even grants to law schools to set up clinics to help citizens file actions where warranted, suggests Banzhaf.
I don't like that the government (aka, the taxpayer) is paying out for these suits, but there is a good argument here that enough of these suits could effect changes in airport security policy overall.

H/T Bill Fisher

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