May 29, 2009 9:25AM 

# It Is a Checkpoint, After All 

By [Jim Harper](https://www.cato.org/people/jim-harper) 

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The *Philadelphia Inquirer* asks [why the TSA didn’t catch Bonnie Sweeten](http://www.philly.com/inquirer/world_us/20090529_Officials_say_security_was_OK_in_Sweeten_case.html) absconding to Orlando at the airport after faking her own and her daughter’s abduction.

The TSA and FBI are right: it’s not airport security’s job to look for people like Bonnie Sweeten. But they will quickly agree to make it part of their mission when newspapers and Members of Congress start to say they should. This is how a nominal airline security program transmogrifies into a general law enforcement checkpoint, and the [noose tightens](https://www.cato.org/2009/05/15/tightening-the-noose-around-the-right-to-travel/) on your right to travel.

##### Related Tags 

[Constitutional Law](https://www.cato.org/constitutional-law), [Technology and Privacy](https://www.cato.org/technology-privacy), [Robert A. Levy Center for Constitutional Studies](https://www.cato.org/robert-levy-center-constitutional-studies) 

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