Opinion ID: 2764193
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Additional Suggested Modifications

Text: As for the other modifications suggested by Ruskai, including her specific requested revisions to the pat-down protocol, we cannot address them at length without discussing sealed material. Suffice it to say that we have reviewed the record (public and otherwise) and are satisfied that Ruskai's requested changes to the protocol are not so obviously practicable and effective as to render unreasonable TSA's decision to reject them. In each instance, moreover, the modifications Ruskai proposes would undercut the efficiency and streamlining interests cited by TSA. [T]he United States enjoys flexibility in selecting from among reasonable alternatives for an administrative search. Corbett, 767 F.3d at 1181. In Michigan Dep't of State Police v. Sitz, the Supreme Court explained that Brown was not meant to transfer from politically accountable officials to the courts the -26- decision as to which among reasonable alternative law enforcement techniques should be employed to deal with a serious public danger, and that for purposes of Fourth Amendment analysis, the choice among such reasonable alternatives remains with the governmental officials who have a unique understanding of, and a responsibility for, limited public resources. 496 U.S. 444, 453454 (1990); see also City of Ontario, Cal. v. Quon, 560 U.S. 746, 764 (2010) (Even assuming there were ways that [the officers] could have performed the search that would have been less intrusive, it does not follow that the search as conducted was unreasonable.). Moreover, Ruskai admits that some of her proposed alternatives would not satisfy her own view of the Fourth Amendment standard. In any event, this is not a case in which the government has two alternative methods of searching Ruskai for nonmetallic weapons, and simply opts for the more intrusive. The current state of affairs is that at many airport security checkpoints, TSA has no choice on how to search for nonmetallic weapons (when it chooses to do so--a point we address further below). It either uses a pat-down, or it does not search for nonmetallic weapons at all.