Originally Posted by Rupert Pupkin

Jessica, I have a question for you. Are you against being searched at the airport? I mean isn't that against the Constitution? How can they search you? There is no probable cause.

I mean technically you could argue that being searched at the airport is unconstitutional. If you want to go by the letter of the law, being searched at the airport is probably unconsititutional. But nobody with any common sense is going to complain about being searched at the airport. sure it's an inconvenience but it is absolutely neccessary. It would be too dangerous if they didn't search you. The Founding Fathers would have no problem with people being searched at the airport. As I said before, the Constitution is not a sudiced pact. It's not an end in itself. It's a means to an end. When deciding whether or not something is constitutional, the most important thing to ask yourself is whether the spirit of the Constitution has been violated. The sprit of the law is what is important. The letter of the law is not important. That is why it is permissable for them to search you at the airport. Even though you could ague that that being searched at the airport is a violation of the letter of the law of the Cosnstitution, it is not a violation of the spirit of the law. That is what really matters. The same can be said about the Patriot Act.

When they search you at the airport, they're not doing it to get a cheap thrill. They're not doing it to harrass people. They're doing it to protect us.