Woman whose vulva was probed by Burbank TSA "officers" who ignored her refusal sues

Last September, Jessica Lundquist passed through a body-scanner at Burbank airport and was told by a TSA screener that they wanted to conduct a "groin search" on her.

Lundquist refused to allow the screener to touch her vulva, whereupon the screener summoned two colleagues. The "officers" (the TSA styles its employees as "officers" even though they do not have any law-enforcement powers) told Lundquist that if she did not allow them to touch her genitals, they would use physical force to perform the search, and also told her she was not allowed to leave. They also refused to allow her to make a video-record of the search.

All of this conduct was illegal. The TSA is not allowed to detain travelers who wish to abandon their trips. The TSA is required to allow passengers to record their searches. The TSA is absolutely not allowed to use physical force to effect searches when passengers object to them.

Lundquist has filed suit against the TSA, through her attorney Jon Corbett (previously), an activist-turned-lawyer who first came to fame when he demonstrated how easy it was to undetectably smuggle dangerous weapons through TSA full-body scanners, and went on to sue the TSA on behalf of a grandmother who was involuntarily strip-searched by the Tulsa TSA on Mother's Day, 2018.

I live in Burbank and fly in and out of the Burbank airport regularly. This is incredibly disturbing on its own, but doubly so that the TSA staffers involved could be my screeners next week. Read the rest