US District Judge Marcia G. Cooke today dismissed my case, saying that “without having been provided a copy of this unpublished statute or regulation [the SOP], I am unable to conduct any meaningful inquiry as to the finality of the Screening Checkpoint SOP” and “this argument would be better addressed to the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals.”
As brief background for those of you at this blog for the first time, the government replied to my lawsuit against the airport nude body scanners and molestation procedures by saying that anything the TSA “orders” is not reviewable by US District Courts, and rather all cases must be filed in the Court of Appeals. The reason the TSA wants this is because in the Court of Appeals, there is no jury, no discovery, and I don’t get to present evidence — essentially, the court would take the TSA’s word on issues of fact.
With no disrespect intended to the Hon. Judge Cooke, I find this to be a bit of a cop-out (essentially, “I couldn’t decide, so I’ll dismiss the case and let the higher court deal with it”), though I am happy to appeal this dismissal to the 11th Circuit, and will do so as soon as possible. Note that this is appealing the decision that there is no jurisdiction, not transferring the case to the 11th Circuit.
The appellate process is expensive (the filing fee is $450 alone!) — if you would like to donate to this cause, please feel free to send donations by PayPal to jon [at] fourtentech.com.
This fight is only beginning.
Corbett v. US – Dismissed (.pdf)
Professional Troublemaker ® 
I wish I could donate; been out of a work for 18 months. But I want to wish you well and THANK YOU for doing this…go get ’em!
No worries — everyone please only donate if you can afford to! No need to break the bank for this. I will proceed whether or not there are donations. Your support is appreciated just as much!
Maybe this is a stupid question but would filing a complaint with the ACLU do any good? If you think about it the Pilots objected to the scanners because they feel that scanners alter the human DNA and guess what? The pilots get to be EXEMPT from scanners! Isn’t that discrimination? Why can’t someone who isn’t a pilot become exempt? Any thoughts on this?
I have donated a small sum. By the way, for anyone else donating you can avoid transaction fees by clicking the “Personal” tab when sending a payment with PayPal. The default is “Purchase” but it’s a simple click to change to “Personal.”
Good luck with your case and thank you for speaking out for so many of us!
This looks like exactly the kind of lawsuit that is needed! I’m going to do a little more research before donating.
What goes the the appeals court it the issue if if the govt can withhold docs – if that is decided in favor of the plaintiff then the case will go back to the district court for review of the facts. (district court decides on facts, appeals decided on law as it pertains to a set of facts – in this case the fact that the gov won’t provide the docs)
Things tight here as well. I can donate $5 — a gesture. I can do some work. I can’t imagine what that would be, but since the quake here in Japan, work is just now trickling back in — what that means is I have some free time on my hands.
Thanks for sharing. I went through a similar ordeal a month ago, and will follow with letters to the TSA. We need to continue these types of law suits as these are very invasive pat downs, particularly following the full body scan. I can’t believe the hands of my government have touched every inch of my body! I feel that the ordeal was both verbally as well as physically abusive. Thanks for all your information on how to deal with these traumatic situations.
Hi Moira, thanks for posting, and sorry to hear about your ordeal. Now that you’ve been through a pat-down, it’s your job to help others by making sure they understand what is going on. Most of the dwindling percentage of the country that still supports the TSA doesn’t yet understand how bad the TSA procedures are. Slowly but surely, all of America will be one or two degrees of separation from someone who was molested, and finally pick up their proverbial pitch forks and insist that this end.
–Jon