My Lawyers respond to TSA

Jennifer Granick and her student Jessica Hubley have written a fantastic response to TSA.

The money quote, IMHO, is:

"Our client is in the business of studying security. He is neither the first nor the only individual to criticize flaws in the TSA’s security procedures nor the only person to describe flaws in the way that boarding passes are created and used. He should not be subjected to civil penalties because he did not violate the Federal Regulations cited in the TSA’s letter, because the regulations cannot be enforced against him or other passengers, because the civil damages provision cited in the TSA’s letter does not apply to the cited regulations, and because Mr. Soghoian’s website is protected by the First Amendment."

I'm posting the letter here (see below).

If you'd rather view a pdf offline, you can find one here.

An Early Christmas Gift from TSA

Dear Christopher,

We were slightly worried that you might spend Christmas relaxing and spending quality time with your family. We can't have that.

Thus, please enjoy the enclosed letter - we're quite confident that it'll occupy your thoughts for the next few weeks. Have fun mulling things over. We expect a reply from you by Christmas day.

Enjoy your holidays!

Love,

Your Friends at TSA.

P.S. We continue to ignore the existence of a different boarding pass generator, written by someone else and which has been online for the past month. It wasn't in the Washington Post, so our bosses haven't seen it yet. Phew!

P.P.S. We don't actually plan on fixing any of the underlying security problems. That'd be far too difficult. We may, however, switch from requiring Ziplock bags to Reynolds Wrap foil pouches for passengers' liquids. The idea of people constructing oragami foil pouches in the security line has been making us crack up at the office, and we think it should do much to spread Christmas Cheer at the Airports.