Jonathan Corbett, Civil Rights Attorney
On January 28th of this year, I filed the first and only lawsuit against the NYPD’s testing and planned implementation of “street body scanners” — terahertz imaging devices designed to allow cops to peer under the clothes of unsuspecting passersby on the street for guns. In addition to highlighting New York’s longstanding disrespect for the… Continue Reading →
When the TSA brought nude body scanners to the airports, demanding that the citizens allow the government to photograph them naked in order to get on a plane, there were some who said, “If you don’t like it, don’t fly!” That we should give up some of our liberty in order to “keep us safe,”… Continue Reading →
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2267217/Forget-pat-downs-NYPD-testing-handheld-X-ray-device-detect-concealed-weapons.html The TSA argues that its nude body scanners are necessary because of the specific risk of air terrorism. But random police checkpoints have never been allowed to force random searches, and case law on thermal imaging, which is a lot less detailed than terahertz imaging, is clear that it requires a warrant. Beyond that,… Continue Reading →
Like the TSA, the NYPD enjoys collecting high-tech toys, and announced in 2012 that they too would be joining the body scanner game. In 2013 they published their recent acquisition of a van-mounted body scanner that can penetrate your clothing from across the street to see what you’ve got. Upon hearing of this, I immediately sued… Continue Reading →
This is a partially off-topic post about something very personal to me, but something I feel compelled to share because there are a couple of things that I think we can make better, and I’d like to raise awareness to those issues. First, the off-topic back story. About a month before I published my big TSA… Continue Reading →
My fight against the TSA’s nude body scanners is approaching the deadline for briefs (in the Court of Appeals, the main briefs are, essentially, the entirety of your case). Pictured here is the “administrative record” as filed by the TSA. Some of it is public record (and will be posted here in full when I… Continue Reading →
In my suit against terahertz imaging by the NYPD, their motion to dismiss based primarily on standing is now fully briefed. In it’s final say on the matter, the NYPD argued the following: Plaintiff Will Have Standing If, And When, The NYPD Implements The Scanners And Plaintiff Is Among The Scanned In other words, the… Continue Reading →
In response to my suit against NYPD street body scanners and the motion for preliminary injunction, the city, a day after its response to the motion for preliminary injunction was due, sent the judge a 4-page letter asking the judge to toss the entire case. Nothing surprising in the argument… basically, “we haven’t done anything… Continue Reading →
Today marks the two-week anniversary of my latest lawsuit, requesting the federal courts to shut down the NYPD’s plans to scan New Yorkers as they walk down the streets for guns without suspicion at all. The city was simultaneously served the complaint as well as a motion for a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction*…. Continue Reading →
Thanks again for your support — yesterday was awesome! 🙂 It feels so good to make a difference, and win or lose on the suit, the NYPD’s plans to scan people walking the sidewalks of the city are now front and center — before hundreds of these things were deployed. If we only would have… Continue Reading →
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