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49 Santa Clara L. Rev. 213 (2009)
The TSA's New X-Ray Vision: The Fourth Amendment Implications of Body-Scan Searches at Domestic Airport Security Checkpoints

handle is hein.journals/saclr49 and id is 217 raw text is: THE TSA'S NEW X-RAY VISION: THE FOURTH AMENDMENT IMPLICATIONS OF BODY-SCAN SEARCHES AT DOMESTIC AIRPORT SECURITY CHECKPOINTS Tobias W. Mock* INTRODUCTION The Transportation Security Administration is currently testing a new form of airport screening technology that renders a virtual naked image of the human body.' This so- called body-scan technology is earmarked to become the centerpiece of the checkpoint of the future, replacing walk- through metal detectors as the primary means of detecting personally concealed weapons and contraband.2 The technology is emerging as a result of widespread deficiencies in present-day search capabilities.' Since the events of September 11, 2001, government accountability auditors have successfully bypassed security checkpoints with * Technical Editor, Santa Clara Law Review, Volume 49; J.D. Candidate, Santa Clara University School of Law, B.S., Boston University. I would like to thank Santa Clara University legal writing instructor Patricia Rauch, and my father, Wayne Mock, for their helpful comments. 1. Leslie Miller, Feds Want See-Through Security, CBS NEWS, June 26, 2003, http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/06/26/tech/main560541.shtml. 2. One Year Later: Have TSA Airport Security Checkpoints Improved?: Hearing Before the H. R. Comm. on Oversight and Gov't Reform, 110th Cong. 9 (2007) (statement of Gregory D. Kutz, Managing Director, and John W. Cooney, Assistant Director, Forensic Audits and Special Investigations, United States Government Accountability Office), [hereinafter Kutz Testimony] available at http://oversight.house.gov/documents/20071114175647.pdf, Eileen Sullivan, Full-Body Scan at Airports Could Replace Walk-Through Metal Detectors, ABC NEWS, Oct. 11, 2007, http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=3716778. 3. See OFFICE OF THE INSPECTOR GENERAL, U.S. DEP'T. OF HOMELAND SECURITY, OIG NO. 04-37, AUDIT OF PASSENGER AND BAGGAGE SCREENING PROCEDURES AT DOMESTIC AIRPORTS 3-4 (2004) [hereinafter OIG AUDIT], http://www.dhs.gov/xoig/assets/mgmtrpts/OIG_04-37-0904.pdf. 213