In lawsuit against TSA, free speech wins one round

Aaron Tobey

In 2010, Aaron Tobey was standing in the security line at the Richmond Airport, when, in a somewhat bizarre protest, he stripped to his shorts displaying on his chest text from the Fourth Amendment about the prohibition against unreasonable searches.  Despite posing no security risk, Tobey was promptly arrested, handcuffed, questioned for 90 minutes, and cited for disorderly conduct.  The citation was dropped but he, with help from the Rutherford Institute, sued the TSA, claiming violation of his First Amendment free speech rights.

Today, in a small step forward, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals denied the TSA's request to dismiss the suit (full text here, PDF).

We used to say "it's a free country."  We don't anymore.