Apparently Stripping Nude To Protest TSA Search Is Protected By The First Amendment

Free Speech

from the in-oregon-at-least dept

Thu, Jul 19th 2012 12:35pm — Mike Masnick

A few months ago, you may have heard about John Brennan, who was going through Portland International Airport, and felt that the TSA screening procedures were the equivalent of harassing him. In response, to protest, he stripped naked... and was promptly arrested for disorderly conduct and indecent exposure. However, a court has now acquitted Brennan by saying that the stripping was an act of public protest, and thus protected by the First Amendment. The judge pointed out that there's already state precedent in Oregon that anti-nudity laws "do not apply in cases of protest."

"It is the speech itself that the state is seeking to punish, and that it cannot do," Circuit Judge David Rees said.

The DA who prosecuted the case is complaining that now anyone arrested for indecent exposure can just claim that it's a protest.

Deputy District Attorney Joel Petersen argued that Brennan only spoke of a protest minutes later. Petersen urged the judge to recognize that distinction, "otherwise any other person who is ever naked will be able to state after the fact" that it was done in protest.

Of course, this now raises the troubling (or appealing, depending on your nature) idea that stripping at the front of the TSA line may become more popular. That said, if you're now... er... itching to disrobe in front of the TSA, it's worth noting that this ruling is specific to Oregon, and who knows how other states might deal with the same issue.

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Filed Under: free speech, nudity, protest, search, tsa

65 Comments

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Anonymous Coward, 19 Jul 2012 @ 12:42pm

Don't tase my junk, bro!
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DannyB (profile), 19 Jul 2012 @ 12:44pm

Just because you protest . . .
Just because you protest doesn't mean they can't continue to harass you, arrest you, and then violate you(r rights) behind closed doors.
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Anonymous Coward, 19 Jul 2012 @ 12:47pm

Is the TSA mad because it would be obvious if they groped him?
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Anonymous Coward, 19 Jul 2012 @ 12:49pm

Re:
Taste my junk bro!
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Anonymous Coward, 19 Jul 2012 @ 12:49pm

Re: Just because you protest . . .
I'd watch that porno
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Anonymous Coward, 19 Jul 2012 @ 12:49pm

I can see this idea going viral throughout Oregon... disturbing isn't it?
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Anonymous Coward, 19 Jul 2012 @ 12:51pm

Re: Just because you protest . . .
Civil rights lawsuits score big money.
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Ninja (profile), 19 Jul 2012 @ 12:51pm

I do hope more ppl start protesting like this. Mental note: be sure to avoid looking at passengers undergoing TSA screening specially in Oregon. Unless the passenger is a hot girl.
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MrWilson, 19 Jul 2012 @ 12:52pm

"The DA who prosecuted the case is complaining that now anyone arrested for indecent exposure can just claim that it's a protest."

That's silly. Brennan stripped during what many Americans feel is an insulting and degrading security theater spectacle. If someone is just randomly running around naked and gets arrested for indecent exposure, what treatment prior to them stripping could they point at to say they were protesting? Brennan had a reasonable context for his claim of protest. Other such accused people might not depending on their circumstances.

The DA just doesn't want legitimate protesters (even spontaneous ones) from being able to fight charges meant to keep the airport chattel in line.
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Anonymous Coward, 19 Jul 2012 @ 12:53pm

Re:
You must of missed the ows "i can't afford a shirt" girls.
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silverscarcat (profile), 19 Jul 2012 @ 12:53pm

The last time I went outside without a shirt on, Animal Control picked me up, mistaking me for a runaway bear.
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Anonymous Coward, 19 Jul 2012 @ 12:54pm

Everyone show up to the airport in oregon naked tomorrow, flash mob style!
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Anonymous Coward, 19 Jul 2012 @ 1:01pm

Is it OK to knock one out at the TSA search?
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Anonymous Coward, 19 Jul 2012 @ 1:10pm

Re: Re:
I don't know What those girls were protesting that forced them to go topless, but I wholeheartedly support it
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That One Guy (profile), 19 Jul 2012 @ 1:15pm

What?
So wait, the DA is trying to claim that the guy 'protesting by stripping' was an excuse he used after the fact to cover what he did... what possible other reason does he think could have been responsible for that particular action, at that particular time?
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GMacGuffin (profile), 19 Jul 2012 @ 1:16pm

Just in time!
I'm flying to Portland next week. On my way out they better leave my skinny white arse alone or they get to see it...
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GMacGuffin (profile), 19 Jul 2012 @ 1:19pm

Re: What?
An article I read on the DA's protest said that the Court responded in effect: "Dude, context." It not be difficult to determine in context why a person was running around nekked.
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Anonymous Coward, 19 Jul 2012 @ 1:21pm

"otherwise any other person who is ever naked will be able to state after the fact" that it was done in protest.

They're protesting anti-nudity laws, obviously.

(side note: re-reading the "ever naked" part makes me wonder if this particular DA showers with his clothes on)
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Anonymous Coward, 19 Jul 2012 @ 1:21pm

"otherwise any other person who is ever naked will be able to state after the fact" that it was done in protest.

They're protesting anti-nudity laws, obviously.

(side note: re-reading the "ever naked" part makes me wonder if this particular DA showers with his clothes on)
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Anonymous Coward, 19 Jul 2012 @ 1:25pm

The cat is out of the bag.
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John Fenderson (profile), 19 Jul 2012 @ 1:26pm

Re:
What's even sillier is that in Oregon, public nudity is not against the law unless it is salacious in nature. So you can walk around naked, but not if you are masturbating.

An "indecent exposure" charge in Oregon means a lot more than that you were naked, and it makes the DA's concern nothing more than pure bullshit.
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Anonymous Coward, 19 Jul 2012 @ 1:28pm

Re:
On the bright side be thankful it was not the police thinking you were pedobear.
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Anonymous Coward, 19 Jul 2012 @ 1:29pm

when a person is told to strip by TSA agents so a search can be performed it's ok, but to preempt the 'order to strip' it's not ok? TSA agents need to make their minds up. either they want people to be helpful, or they dont!
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Machin Shin (profile), 19 Jul 2012 @ 1:29pm

Really a pity how hard it is to organize large scale protests. If everyone who was insulted by the TSA would all protest the same day then we might get a change, but most people would be too worried about getting to their place on time and so on.

Just think about it though if everyone who went to an airport carried a pocket knife on them one day. TSA end up having to check everyone and finding a knife on almost everyone they check. The system would crash and they could not handle it.

The whole thing is just stupid these days. There is no way in hell anyone is going to hijack a plane anymore. I don't care if you have an assault rifle, the other passengers will kill you if you stand up and say your taking the plane.
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John Fenderson (profile), 19 Jul 2012 @ 1:32pm

Re: Re:
And now that I think of it, why is this a state issue at all? The reason that we're always given for why we are subject to things which would be unconstitutional anywhere else is that an airport is not really "in the country", let alone the state.
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That One Guy (profile), 19 Jul 2012 @ 1:35pm

Not the route I wouldn't gone
I always figured a good 'get out of grope' tactic would be to inform them that as soon as they start the feel-up, that you'd start groaning, loudly, to 'show your appreciation'. After all, if you're going to be humiliated, it's only fair they get something out of the deal too.
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Beech, 19 Jul 2012 @ 1:37pm

Maaaan, I'm going to go to Oregon now and protest everything!
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That One Guy (profile), 19 Jul 2012 @ 1:37pm

Re: Not the route I wouldn't gone
*I would've gone

Bloody typos...
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JesseJ, 19 Jul 2012 @ 1:49pm

Lady Godiva
As far as I can tell, this trend got started in England in about the year 1200 . . . using nudity as a form of protesting tyrrany. Hmmm . . . still works. Who would hav thought?
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LDoBe (profile), 19 Jul 2012 @ 1:51pm

Re:
Didja get some sweet, sweet tranquilizer? (ref: venture bros.)
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Torg (profile), 19 Jul 2012 @ 1:53pm

Re:
"If someone is just randomly running around naked and gets arrested for indecent exposure, what treatment prior to them stripping could they point at to say they were protesting?"

I've often considered doing just that in protest of public indecency laws. If I'm ever in Oregon I now know the first thing I need to do.
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Mason Wheeler (profile), 19 Jul 2012 @ 1:54pm

Re:
The whole thing is just stupid these days. There is no way in hell anyone is going to hijack a plane anymore. I don't care if you have an assault rifle, the other passengers will kill you if you stand up and say your taking the plane.

This. I've been saying this since 9/12/01. 9/11 was a zero-day exploit, a hack that demonstrates the vulnerability of the system in the act of using it. It's something that can never happen again (as long as we remember it) and being afraid of terrorists hijacking airplanes anymore is ridiculous.
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silverscarcat (profile), 19 Jul 2012 @ 1:54pm

Re: Lady Godiva
She was quite the looker, I heard.

At least Tom says so.

Right, "Peeping" Tom?
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Anonymous Coward, 19 Jul 2012 @ 1:55pm

Re:
Hell its why i switched to a Metal Breifcase.... makes it easy (and quick) to play wack the mole on the idiot that says they are taking the plane...
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Anonymous Coward, 19 Jul 2012 @ 2:00pm

Re:
Be glad they thought you was a bear not a dog without a dog license. They take bears to the woods and release them. They take dogs to the pound and gas them.
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Anonymous Coward, 19 Jul 2012 @ 2:07pm

Re: Re:
Oregonians for liberated (sexual) organs!
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Anonymous Coward, 19 Jul 2012 @ 2:08pm

Made me think of this from Old School
Peppers: Hey, hey. Careful with that. That's the most powerful tranq gun on the market. Got her in Mexico.
Frank: Cool.
Peppers: Yeah, it is cool. They say it can puncture the skin of a rhino from...
[Frank shoots himself in the neck with the dart]
Peppers: YES! That's awesome!
Frank: What?
Peppers: You just took one in the jugular, man.
Frank: What? I did.
[feeling his neck]
Peppers: YES!
Frank: Oh, my God. Is this bad? Is this bad?
Peppers: You better pull that shit out, man. That shit is not cool.
Frank: Wait. What? Pull what out?
Peppers: You got a fucking dart in your neck, man.
Frank: [laughing] You're... you're crazy, man. I like you, but you're crazy.
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Anonymous Coward, 19 Jul 2012 @ 2:18pm

Not like it wasn't provoked...
He'd been through the scanner AND had a patdown... and THEN they were pulling him aside. It's not until that point that he did his "disrobing" protest. Effectively saying, "Hey, now where am I hiding a bomb?!?!" On the issue of the "public nudity"... Oregon is an exceedingly liberal state that tends to favor freedoms. *shrug*
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Anonymous Coward, 19 Jul 2012 @ 2:50pm

Re: Re:
At Penn State no one fears the pedobear.
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Anonymous Coward, 19 Jul 2012 @ 3:07pm

Re:
only if its in protest
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Anonymous Coward, 19 Jul 2012 @ 3:08pm

Re:
He is a never-nude
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Lord of the Files, 19 Jul 2012 @ 3:32pm

Re:
I'm guessing you agree with Deputy District Attorney Joel Petersen. There is a flaw with his argument though. The facts would have to support those making such claims. Yes, that pesky little thing I like to call evidence. Claiming you were stripping in protest doesn't work without it, plus I honestly don't believe everyone is going to suddenly be clamoring to get naked in public, be it in protest or otherwise. The Judge got this one right IMHO.
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Lorpius Prime (profile), 19 Jul 2012 @ 3:33pm

A quibble with the title.
The First Amendment doesn't operate differently in Oregon than in the rest of the States. My understanding of this case is that this gentleman's stripping was not forbidden by Oregon's specific statues on nudity, not because it was protected First Amendment speech.
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Anonymous Coward, 19 Jul 2012 @ 3:37pm

Re:
You were a bear bear!
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Pangolin (profile), 19 Jul 2012 @ 3:39pm

Legal....
In OREGON. Be careful in other states.
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Rekrul, 19 Jul 2012 @ 3:46pm

He's lucky the state's laws on nudity are so relaxed. In many states, he'd now be a registered sex offender.
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Wally (yes I was in Vegas my last few writings no (profile), 19 Jul 2012 @ 3:48pm

Searches
I actually like this article because I had to go through the scanner at Columbus International Airport. My poor mother had to get pulled aside. (I took my parents to go see the North Rim of The Grand Canyon, Hiked in Bryce Canyon, and drove through Zion National Park....then hit the Vegas strip to see Circ Du Sol�). My poor mother set off the alarm because of her knee replacement. The one thing that pissed me off the most was that no matter how many times we told the agent on duty what it was, the agent demanded a "random" strip search. I raised enough ruckous about her knee that the agent's supervisor came out and asked for a female assist on a simple frisk.

Now that I have the story, I honestly have no problem being scanned. But man alive it's funny (and awesome) that someone finally got away with stripping down in protest :-)

If any of you have been scanned, let me reassure you the only level of exposure is the radiation of a normal x-ray or MRI scan. The outline of your body isn't very visible. Don't get me wrong, I still hate being scanned like that, I've just gotten too used to it. Those 3d images that the scanners produced were a-kin to the public notification of the F-117 Stealth Bomber. It wasn't real and the press could not show you the x-ray resolution for the scanners due to matters of national security.
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Sad Mac, 19 Jul 2012 @ 4:16pm

Re: Not the route I wouldn't gone
"I always figured a good 'get out of grope' tactic would be to inform them that as soon as they start the feel-up, that you'd start groaning, loudly, to 'show your appreciation'. After all, if you're going to be humiliated, it's only fair they get something out of the deal too."

LOL and LMAO. Of course, I hope you realize that you may have found the biggest loophole there is that would get around both the public nudity laws and indecency laws in most states :-)
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Nigel (profile), 19 Jul 2012 @ 5:16pm

In other News
Oh FFS http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2176035/TSA-agents-humiliate-strip-search-ill-grandmother-sw ab-gastric-feeding-tube-explosives.html

Nigel
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Anonymous Coward, 19 Jul 2012 @ 5:28pm

Naked Oregon
Nuff Said!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-gG0mqx25lQ
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Yeah Right, 19 Jul 2012 @ 5:32pm

Who knows how other states might deal with the same issue
Well let's find out! Protesting was never as much fun. Let's all take you clothes off in public, yey
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Anonymous Coward, 19 Jul 2012 @ 6:37pm

Re: Re:
The AC doth protest too much, methinks
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Anonymous Coward, 20 Jul 2012 @ 4:00am

Re: Who knows how other states might deal with the same issue
glad to see that sometimes justice can see the bare facts...
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Niall (profile), 20 Jul 2012 @ 4:55am

Re: Re:
I suspect that this defence won't work for wandering around the street naked, but anyone stripping off at a TSA checkpoint could be reasonably assumed to be making a protest, especially once this is known. This is particularly appropriate as a protesting method as it is in direct relation to the unwarranted actions by the state, i.e. to sexually assault you or make illegal porn of you.
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Niall (profile), 20 Jul 2012 @ 4:56am

Re: Re:
Actually, now I think about it, a mass nude protest would certainly attract some attention and hopefully embarrasment to the TSA in Oregon...
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Ninja (profile), 20 Jul 2012 @ 5:22am

Re: Re: Re:
+1

I didn't miss all the free naked girls. I try to follow those stuff (OWS, 15M etc) on Twitter (though I don't always succeed) and Twitter has become the best source of amateur erotica ever.

They can buy tshirts alright but I'm all for not using if not necessary ;D
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Ninja (profile), 20 Jul 2012 @ 5:23am

Re: Re:
Oregon must be a great place to live.
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Ninja (profile), 20 Jul 2012 @ 5:28am

Re: A quibble with the title.
Federal laws > State laws?
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Ninja (profile), 20 Jul 2012 @ 5:29am

Re: Re: A quibble with the title.
Oh and Constitution > all?
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DannyB (profile), 20 Jul 2012 @ 6:11am

Re: Re: Just because you protest . . .
Only if you can win them.
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John Fenderson (profile), 20 Jul 2012 @ 9:48am

Re: Re: Re:
It absolutely is!

But, despite the law, you don't see a lot of people walking around naked even when it isn't wet & chilly outside. We do have quite a few nude beaches and swimming holes, though, and some festivals and gatherings offer a nice view.
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eu, 20 Jul 2012 @ 10:03am

When do you americans start rebeling against the system if you are so against it?
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Anonymous Coward, 20 Jul 2012 @ 10:42am

Re: Re: What?
I so want to read that transcript.

"What does mine say?"
"Dude! What does mine say?"
Sweet! What does mine say?"
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hegemon13, 20 Jul 2012 @ 11:19am

Re: Re: A quibble with the title.
Now, yes, but that's not how it was supposed to be.
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Wally (profile), 21 Jul 2012 @ 8:58pm

Re:
Not sure, but I don't think it is the system entirely at fault, it is mostly the people that currently run the place (that represent the people of the United States) that need flushed out or irradiated from office.
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