Airport Security
Terrorists banned but nudists OK: Judge rules TSA stripping is legal
Finally, United States lawmakers have decided to provide the American people with an alternative to the intrusive body scan and uncomfortable pat down.
Nudity.
Multnomah county judge David Rees ruled that it was constitutional to strip naked in protest of the security measures because it is an action protected by the first amendment. This ruling comes in light of an incident on April 16 at a Portland Airport in which John E. Brennan removed his clothes to show his distaste for the handling of security.
The 50-year-old technical consultant refused to subject himself to a full-body scan and instead elected to be pat down, according to his testimony in court. After the pat-down, Transportation Security Administration officials detected the presence of nitrates, which are polyatomic ions often used in the construction of explosives.
Sufficiently frustrated, Brennan decided to drop trou to prove that he was not carrying any type of explosive weapon. A TSA agent stacked plastic crates around Brennan in an attempt to shield other passengers from Brennan's naked figure.
The ordeal lasted approximately five minutes before Brennan was arrested on site by police officers for indecent exposure and taken to Multnomah county jail.
"I was mostly motivated by the absurdity of it all," he told the Associated Press.
Brennan was acquitted of the indecent exposure charge when Rees cited a 1985 state appeals court ruling stating that nudity is not categorized as indecent exposure when done in protest.
"I'd been through metal detector and full pat down, but that's the hassle we have to put up with," Brennan told the New York Daily News. "The system is broken. I don't know what the solution is to fix it, but I'm sure there are experts out there who do."
