You’re probably joking about the cocaine, counterfeit money, and child porn. I always wonder what exactly are the laws regarding searches and seizures. I thought, for example, that some people get arrested for drugs when they were pulled over for a speeding ticket. If law enforcement people discover evidence of criminality when doing something else, what is the legal status? So if TSA people discover evidence of other crime, what is their legal obligation? I guess these court cases will draw lines around what they do.
The legal status depends on whether the the legal issue is within their jurisdiction. A common cop is tasked with both issuing speeding tickets and arresting for drug possession - if he finds one while dealing with the other, it is indeed his problem to deal with. The same common cop is NOT tasked with, say, addressing tax fraud, so if he glimpses documents that he (in his legal ignorance) perceives as possible evidence thereof it is not his business to detain a driver and hand him bodily over to the IRS.
if TSA people discover evidence of other crime, what is their legal obligation?
On what grounds is the TSA agent authorized (and trained) to identify and act on such "crime"? Some issues may be plainly obvious to the public at large and thus acted on (say, finding someone's freshly-harvested ear in carry-on luggage), but anything not so obvious which the agent has not been trained to recognize & handle is not their business (say, possessing a cashbox is not grounds for detaining on an ill-understood law limiting how much cash can be travelled with, or what constitutes a passport one is not allowed to possess).
If they're not at least minimally trained & authorized to act on a perceived transgression, they are not to act thereon. That's the way the Constitution operates: governmental powers not granted do not exist.
In your car, cops can make a safety sweep for weapons. Usually does not include trunk. They may ask for permission to search your car. IF DWI or DUI, they can impound your car and do an inventory search. They can seize stuff in plain view.
The problem is, that cops lie like dogs. They will search and then make up excuses for the search. They obtain search warrants the same way. They break the biggest and most important law in the land (the Constitution) to catch some druggie.
That is why “liberal” judges are really better. They tend to protect people against the gov’t. Its the word “liberal” that throws conservatives off. We just hate the “l” word even when it don’t mean what we think.
parsy, who is waiting for the Dirty Harry type movie that will make it ok for cops to seize guns and Bibles.