Victory: TSA Agrees to Drop $2600 Fine Against Texas Man Who Opted Not to Board a Flight Rather Than Be Subjected to Invasive Pat-Down Search

John W. Whitehead, Constitutional Attorney

HOUSTON, Tex. — The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has agreed to withdraw a fine against a Texas man who, after successfully passing through an airport security metal detector and then being randomly selected to pass through a whole-body imaging scanner, chose not to board a flight rather than be subjected to a third search—an invasive pat-down—by TSA agents.

Jonathan Cobb was fined $2,660 by the TSA and charged with “interfering” with airport screening after he politely refused, based on past traumatic experiences with the TSA, to be subjected to a pat-down search at George W. Bush International Airport and opted instead not to board his ticketed flight. Attorneys for The Rutherford Institute came to Cobb’s defense, challenging the $2660 fine as excessive and successfully arguing that Cobb had a Fourth Amendment right to opt out of the search and elect not to travel.

Affiliate attorney Jerri Lynn Ward of…

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