Foundation for Economic Education
by James R. Otteson

I have long had an uneasy relationship with airport security. Before September 11, I resisted the demand that I produce a government-issued ID, believing that it smacked too much of the 'Papers, please' of the former Soviet Union that Hollywood movies used to mock and we free Americans used to laugh at. I also used to withhold permission to search my bags. On one occasion before September 11, in the Birmingham, Alabama, airport, the security guard was nonplussed when I answered no to her perfunctory request for permission to search my briefcase. I told her, and then her supervisor, and eventually a man who identified himself as the head of security at the airport, that I am protected by the Constitution from unreasonable searches and seizures... (written 07/02; reposted 07/24/05)

http://www.fee.org/vnews.php?nid=5089