Macroentorno

Augusto Tomás Ferreres (MHA)

Public Health Law Essay

Airport Screening: A New Chapter in the Historical Struggle between National Security and Civil Liberties

Airline travel is an indispensable part of modern society. It is estimated that two million people travel by airplane each day in and out of the United States. Over the last few decades, airline travel has emerged as the mostefficient and convenient way of getting from point A to point B. That, combined with its cost-effectiveness, has made it one of the biggest and most complex industries in today’s economy. Our perception of airline travel was forever changed the morning of September 11th, 2001 when four commercial airliners were hijacked and used as weapons of mass destruction. This infamously tragic eventredefined the air travel experience and created a relationship between air travel and the public health that was non-existent before. Airline security was no longer a matter of protecting the flying public, but also a matter of protecting national security and the health of all the public.

The government’s paranoid reaction to such a shocking and fearful experience was visible andunderstandable. The passage of bills such as the US Patriot Act and the adoption of new policies that took place during the following months aimed at a clear objective: allow the indefinite detention of enemy combatants and the increase the surveillance of both foreigners and Americans. This paved the way to new chapter in the United States history of discord between civil liberties and national security.Unfortunately, this is not a new phenomenon. During World War I, the courts permitted restriction on the freedom of expression and prosecuted many foreigners living in the United States because of their suspected political views. The government also detained thousands of Japanese-Americans after the attack on Pearl Harbor, stripping them from their property and freedom. Additionally, in the 1950sprosecution of individuals with suspected Communist ties was a common sight. In hindsight, these severe restrictions on freedom and civil liberties seem like unsightly flaws on the record of a country that was founded on the ideals of democracy and freedom. A prime example of the discord between civil liberties and the national security agenda that took place after 9-11 was the controversialinstitution of the Computer Assisted Passenger Pre-Screening System (CAPPS) by the Department of Homeland Security (DHA).

In the days following 9-11, the U.S. Congress enacted the Air Transportation Safety and System Stabilization Act and the Aviation and Transportation Security Act (ATSA), which federalized all airport-screening services. As a strategy to prevent further attacks and detain terrorists,the government initiated the CAPPS II System. As it was originally conceived, the CAPPS II System was designed to screen all passengers boarding a commercial aircraft using a two-step process. First, it would verify the passenger’s identification information using commercial databases, and then conduct a risk assessment by comparing the passengers’ information to classified federal databases. Inorder to conduct the search, the passenger was asked to provide personal information such as name, address, telephone number and flight itinerary. Using federal databases the System assigned each passenger a color-coded score. "Green" meant that you do not appear to pose a threat to safety and are free to board the plane.  "Yellow" meant that you appear to pose a potential threat and must undergofurther security checks before being allowed to board.  "Red" meant that you are likely to pose an "imminent threat" to the physical safety of the people on the plane and will not be allowed to board the flight. The algorithm that the system used was obviously confidential but it was understood that people with criminal records would be assigned “Yellow” or even “Red”.
As you might imagine, the...