John Pistole Should Resign

TSA Administrator John Pistole is under fire for the new "enhanced security" measures recently introduced at US airports, which presumes that all American air travelers are criminals. For his part, Pistole defends the security measures as "a crucial development to guarantee the safety of travelers" (see here). This is complete BS, as anyone would know who has read John Mueller's expose, Overblown: How Politicians and the Terrorism Industry Inflate National Security Threats, and Why We Believe Them (Free Press 2006).

I was not on the faculty when Pistole received his legal training at our law school. Nevertheless, as a faculty member, I am embarrassed that one of our esteemed graduates, with responsibility for a very powerful federal agency, has so little appreciation for the basic civil liberties that are supposed to limit government authority. Under Pistole's directive, the government is treating all air travelers just like common criminals. Such  treatment is intolerable and, in my view, patently unlawful (for reasons set forth by Marc Rotenberg here).

Even if the new security measures make travelers safer (a claim the TSA has yet to substantiate no doubt for reasons of national security), that does not make them either lawful or constitutional. Moreover, the price of safety can be very high. While the TSA protects us from terrorists, who will protect us from the TSA? I am reminded of an observation made by the famous Polish dissident Jacek Kuron at a symposium I attended several years ago: the safest societies are police states.

Hopefully, the political outcry and lawsuits will force the out-of-control TSA to back down, and lead to Pistole's resignation.

UPDATE: I have read that President Obama has defended the new security measures as "necessary" to airline safety. He should know better than most that what is "necessary" is not necessarily constitutional. His predecessor has claimed that waterboarding was "necessary." In the past, other politicians have claimed that internment of Japanese Americans was "necessary" or that Indian removal was "necessary." I used to think Obama would make a good Supreme Court Justice - perhaps a better Justice than a president. Perhaps I was wrong.