Patdowns, not assaults

Most Americans are far likelier to be searched by an agent of the Transportation Security Administration than by an FBI agent. But according to a federal appeals court, if an FBI agent violates your rights you can file a lawsuit. If you’re manhandled by a TSA employee, you’re out of luck.

By a 2-1 vote, the U.S. 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia has ruled against Nadine Pellegrino, a business consultant from Boca Raton, Fla., who claimed that a search of her belongings at Philadelphia International Airport in 2006 was too rough and invasive.

The appeals court’s decision turned not on the truth or falsity of Pellegrino’s allegations but on how a law called the Federal Tort Claims Act should be interpreted.

Generally, the federal government is immune to lawsuits under the doctrine of “sovereign immunity.” But the Federal Tort Claims Act creates various exceptions, including one allowing citizens to sue “investigative or law enforcement officers” for civil wrongs including false arrest, false imprisonment and malicious prosecution.

Writing for the majority, Judge Cheryl Ann Krause said that TSA agents didn’t qualify because the searches they performed were “administrative.”

We disagree. The judge’s cramped reading of the law seems to miss the point of what TSA agents do. And it denies recourse to people who are abused by them. Those who take advantage of the sometimes intimate contact they have with the traveling public shouldn’t be immune to legal sanctions. If the courts won’t recognize that, Congress should step in.