fw998: “You can stomp your feet and throw a tantrum and claim that these searches are illegal all that you want, but it won’t change the reality that they are not.”
I’m not stomping my feet or throwing a tantrum. If it makes you feel like you’re making a better argument by implying I’m childish and emotional, well good for you.
As for the legality of a particular act, you may be technically correct. Janet Napolitano, for example, either shares your opinion or is knowingly committing a crime. Personally, I prefer to think she’s acting with good intentions—not that that makes it right.
The government has the power to make and interpret the law, so technically they can do whatever they want. Kagan, Sotomayer, and their ilk might rule these searches are legal. It’s within their power. In that case, you’d win the debating point but lose your liberty. If the 4th Amendment permits this, then there is no longer any right to be secure in your person, papers, or effects on public property. You can defend that if you wish, but forgive me for not celebrating the loss of liberty with you.
The SCOTUS does not constitutionally have the power to declare day is night and night is day. In fact, they don’t even have the power of constitutional review. John Marshall’s court made that up in Marbury.
I also would disagree that Napolitano is acting in good faith. She, like the other totalitarian leftists in the government, doesn’t care what the Constitution says. They made that plain during the Obamacare debate.
What this scanner episode tells us is that most Americans today have the mentality of serfs, and I hold them in utter contempt.