April 15, 2011 3:52PM # TSA: If You Object to Giving Up Your Rights, We Should Take a Closer Look at You By [David Rittgers](https://www.cato.org/people/david-rittgers) --- SHARE TSA screeners and behavior detection officers may give you [extra attention](http://www.cnn.com/2011/TRAVEL/04/15/tsa.screeners.complain/) if you complain about security protocols (video at the jump). Former FBI agent Michael German sums up my feelings pretty well: > It’s circular reasoning where, you know, I’m going to ask someone to surrender their rights; if they refuse, that’s evidence that I need to take their rights away from them. And it’s simply inappropriate. In related news, the GAO recently told Congress that the TSA’s Screening Passengers by Observation Technique (SPOT) is [not scientifically grounded](http://www.hstoday.us/industry-news/general/single-article/tsa-s-spot-program-not-scientifically-grounded-gao-told-congress-tsa-experts-disagree/66b9300d981c1b1a39ac475411d38739.html). The GAO testimony is available [here](http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d11461t.pdf). More Cato work on TSA screening [here](https://www.cato.org/tsa-behavioral-screening/), [here](https://www.cato.org/gaos-damning-report-on-spot/) and [here](https://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=12590). ##### Related Tags [Defense and Foreign Policy](https://www.cato.org/defense-foreign-policy), [Constitutional Law](https://www.cato.org/constitutional-law), [Robert A. Levy Center for Constitutional Studies](https://www.cato.org/robert-levy-center-constitutional-studies) [![Creative Commons License](/build/cato_2020/images/creative-commons.svg)](http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/) This work is licensed under a [Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/).