Jonathan Corbett, Civil Rights Attorney
Well over a decade ago, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit tossed aside a case I filed as a young, pro se litigant, without oral arguments, on the basis that TSA screeners aren’t “officers of the United States” and therefore can’t be sued under laws that hold such officers accountable. This decision,... Continue Reading →
“Civil asset forfeiture” is a legal framework that allows the government to take money or other assets that it has probable cause to believe are connected to a crime. Meant to allow the government to drain the assets of drug cartels, the law is now used to take cash wherever a law enforcement officer finds... Continue Reading →
Respect for the rule of law isn’t generally a partisan issue. Appreciation for career civil servants usually doesn’t come only with an R or a D. And yet, I know, I’m likely to lose a lot of followers of this blog for saying some fairly simple things that, two months ago, would not have been... Continue Reading →
Last week, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit was the fifth federal appeals court in a row to hold that TSA screeners are “investigative or law enforcement officers,” a category of federal employees who may be sued for intentional misconduct like battery or false arrest under the Federal Tort Claims Act. The... Continue Reading →
TSA loves arguing that it’s exempt from Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA) lawsuits based on the misconduct of its checkpoint screeners. The text of the FTCA states that it only applies to intentional misconduct when committed by an “officer of the United States who is empowered by law to execute searches, to seize evidence, or... Continue Reading →
Electric Zoo is a large annual electronic dance music festival held on Randall’s Island in Manhattan. They are no stranger to legal issues, and in fact my firm had sued them in 2019 over allegations that their security was conducting strip searches on attendees. But, matters were made worse when notorious Brooklyn nuisance/nightclub owner Juergen Bildstein purchased... Continue Reading →
United Airlines has a problem. Of its approximately 900 airplanes, only 19 of them are original Boeing 777-200s, delivered 23 to 28 years ago with Pratt & Whitney PW4077 engines. In the last 10 years, these 19 planes had at least 11 engine failures or related incidents during takeoff or mid-flight. In 2021, my firm... Continue Reading →
This is the fifteenth installment of a series documenting an ordinary New Yorker attempting to exercise his Second Amendment rights: Part I (license application), Part II (application rejected), Part III (the lawsuit), Part IV (appeal filed), Part V (appellate briefing complete), Part VI (N.Y. Appeals Court Not Interested in Ending NYPD Corruption), Part VII (Corruption? You Can’t Prove It!), Part…
In a second victory for travelers this year, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit held 3-0 that the Federal Tort Claims Act allows lawsuits against the government when TSA screeners violate passengers. Two months ago, the Fourth Circuit held the same, and previously the Third and Eighth Circuits took the same path... Continue Reading →
In 2012, a TSA screener refused to allow me to leave a checkpoint after I told him I wouldn’t consent to having him touch my genitals. He told me I would be forcibly searched, called the police, and spent 45 minutes tearing apart my baggage looking for drugs. TSA screeners, of course, have no authority... Continue Reading →