CEI Sues TSA for Violating Federal Law and Court Order on Body Scanners
Yesterday, July 15, 2015, CEI filed a petition for writ of mandamus with the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals. Our suit requests the court enforce its July 15, 2011, decision that found the TSA’s deployment of body scanners in violation of the Administrative Procedure Act. The 2011 court ordered the TSA to “promptly” open a rulemaking proceeding and produce a final rule. Yesterday was the four-year anniversary of the court order and we still do not have a final rule to evaluate and potentially challenge. In fact, given that TSA has been rolling out body scanners since 2007, they have been violating the APA for eight years.
Other than CEI, petitioners are the National Center for Transgender Equality, The Rutherford Institute, CEI President Lawson Bader, and yours truly, in our capacity as private individuals. CEI’s attorneys are representing the petitioners.
Our primary interest in this case is ensuring the TSA is forced to follow the law. However, results of a classified Department of Homeland Security Inspector General audit were leaked to and publicized by ABC News on June 1. The failure rate was an astounding 96 percent. So, not only is the TSA violating the law by deploying these machines, the machines likely don’t even work as advertised, as we and others have alleged in the past.
So far, USA Today, The Washington Examiner, Reason magazine have covered the lawsuit, with a small blurb in The New York Times.
The summary of our argument can be found here. The full complaint is here. For more from CEI on TSA’s illegal body scanner policy, see our 2013 comments to the agency and a 2012 op-ed by former American Airlines CEO Robert L. Crandall and myself summarizing our amicus brief in EPIC v. DHS.
Below is a timeline of important events that led to this case.
June 2008
The Transportation Security Administration (TSA), an agency of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), installs body scanning machines in 10 major U.S. commercial airports. These scanners, which can see through clothing, are supposed to identify security threats capable of evading metal detectors. In coming years, TSA installs hundreds of these body scanners at airports nationwide.
May 31, 2009
A coalition of public interest groups, led by the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), submits a petition pursuant to 5 U.S.C. § 553(e) asking DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano to initiate a formal rulemaking process to receive public input on TSA’s use of body scanners to screen passengers at commercial airports.
June 19, 2009
TSA’s Acting Administrator responds to the petition with a short letter discussing how and why TSA uses body scanners. The letter does not address to the request for a rulemaking.
April 21, 2010
The EPIC-led coalition submits another Section 553(e) petition, requesting that TSA immediately suspend its “purchase, deployment, and operation” of body scanners, arguing that the use of the scanners violates the APA, RFRA, the Privacy Act, and the Fourth Amendment.
May 28, 2010
TSA’s Chief Counsel responds to the petition with a defense of TSA’s use of body scanners, addressing several of the claims raised by the EPIC-led coalition. TSA does not suspend the program or initiate a rulemaking.
July 2, 2010
EPIC, Chip Pitts, and Bruce Schneier file a petition for review with the Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, pursuant to 49 U.S.C. § 46110, asking the court to remedy TSA’s failure to act on the 2009 petition, its refusal to process the 2010 petition, and ongoing requirement that airport checkpoints use body scanners for primary screening.
Petitioners argue that TSA’s use of body scanners (1) violates the APA because the agency ignored EPIC’s petition and deviated from its statutory mandate; (2) violates the Fourth Amendment by unreasonably searching passengers; (3) violates the Privacy Act by collecting personally identifiable information without an accompanying “system of records notice”; and (4) violates the Religious Freedom Restoration Act by substantially burdening Muslims’ belief in modesty when less restrictive means of screening are available.
July 15, 2011
In EPIC v. DHS, 653 F.3d 1 (D.C. Cir. 2011) (no. 10-1157), the court partially granted the petition for review. Judge Ginsburg wrote the opinion, joined by Judges Henderson and Tatel. The court rejected petitioners’ Privacy Act and RFRA claims, and their Fourth Amendment claim. However, the court agreed with the petitioners that the APA compels TSA to conduct notice-and-comment rulemaking regarding its use of body scanners, rejecting TSA’s argument that its body scanner regime was merely a procedural rule, interpretive rule, or general statement of policy. The court remanded the “rule” to the TSA, instructing the agency to “promptly proceed in a manner consistent with [the court’s] opinion.”
July 17, 2012
A year after the D.C. Circuit ordered TSA to conduct an APA rulemaking, the agency had taken no action. EPIC filed a petition for a writ of mandamus asking the court to enforce its earlier mandate.
July 19, 2012
The Competitive Enterprise Institute, joined by former American Airlines CEO Robert Crandall and seven other public interest groups, filed an amicus brief in support of EPIC’s petition for a writ of mandamus.
September 25, 2012
In a per curiam order, the D.C. Circuit denies the petition for a writ of mandamus, but notes that it “expect[s] that the NPRM will be published before the end of March 2013.” In re Elec. Privacy Info. Ctr., No. 12-1307 (D.C. Cir. Sept. 25, 2012) (per curiam).
March 26, 2013
A few days before the court-imposed deadline of “the end of March 2013,” TSA publishes a notice of proposed rulemaking, proposing to add two sentences to 49 C.F.R. § 1540.107 to note that the agency may use “advanced imaging technology,” defined as “screening technology used to detect concealed anomalies without requiring physical contact with the individual being screened.”
June 24, 2013
CEI and Robert Crandall file comments with TSA in its proceeding regarding the use of body scanners. We argue that TSA’s proposed rule falls far short of what the APA requires, as it does not give passengers fair notice of their airport screening obligations, and that the agency has failed to justify its proposed rule on risk-based, cost-benefit grounds.
July 15, 2015
CEI, National Center for Transgender Equality, The Rutherford Institute, Lawson Bader, and Marc Scribner file a petition for writ of mandamus asking the D.C. Circuit to enforce its 2011 mandate and order the TSA to produce a final rule within 90 days.