The Transportation Security Administration cannot be held liable for damages due to belligerent or abusive TSA agents, following a federal appeals court ruling.
The appeal judges said TSA officers are federal employees conducting ‘administrative searches’ and not ‘investigative or law enforcement officers’ so it cannot be sued for abusive behaviour or invasive searches.
TSA officers are not armed nor do they have the power to arrest passengers.
The ruling came about after a civil rights lawsuit dating back a decade in which Nadine Pellegrino claimed nearly $1 million after being arrested on assault charges after a heated confrontation with TSA agents at Philadelphia.
Those charges were later dropped after one of the TSA agents involved no longer worked for the agency and failed to show up in court.
