Back in 2011 we mentioned the case of Aaron Tobey, who wrote a portion of the Fourth Amendment on his chest and took off his t-shirt to protest TSA screening procedures. He arrested and charged with disorderly conduct. The charges were dropped, and Tobey followed up with a lawsuit.
A lower court ruled against him, claiming that that the location of the protest was not appropriate. But the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has overturned that decision.
Airline Passenger’s Stripping Protest Lands Officers In First-Amendment School (PopularResistance.Org)
“It is crystal clear,” the appeals court wrote, “that the First Amendment protects peaceful nondisruptive speech in an airport, and that such speech cannot be suppressed solely because the government disagrees with it.”
In his opinion, Judge Roger Gregory wrote: “Mr. Tobey engaged in a silent, peaceful protest using the text of our Constitution — he was well within the ambit of First Amendment protections. And while it is tempting to hold that First Amendment rights should acquiesce to national security in this instance, our Forefather Benjamin Franklin warned against such a temptation by opining that those ‘who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.’ We take heed of his warning and are therefore unwilling to relinquish our First Amendment protections — even in an airport.
As part of the settlement, officers at the aiport in question will be required to take a class on the First and Fourth amendments.