Va. Student Wins Appeal On Full-Body Scans In Airports

The Transportation Security Administration will remove most full-body scanners from U.S. airports by June, according to agency officials. It's good news for Aaron Tobey of Charlottesville, Va., man who alleges the machines violated his constitutional rights.

Tobey was heading back to college in Ohio in December 2010 when he staged a novel protest at Richmond's airport. He stripped down to his shorts, revealing the words of the fourth amendment to the U.S. Constitution on his chest.

"The right of the people to be secure against unreasonable search and seizure shall not be violated," quotes Tobey's lawyer, John Whitehead. He and his client agree that full body scans and pat downs at airports go too far.

But TSA didn't see it that way. Aaron Tobey was polite in making his protest, but police arrested him anyway.

"They grabbed him, took him downstairs and for 90 minutes went through a series of questions to see if he was a terrorist," Whitehead says. "All you had to do was google to see he was a fifth-year architecture student at the University of Cincinnati."

Tobey was charged with breach of the peace and disruptive conduct, charges dismissed by a state court. Later, he sued the federal government. The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals last week affirmed an earlier ruling that Tobey's First Amendment rights were violated.

Meanwhile, the federal government is planning to move approximately 250 of the unpopular machines out of U.S. airports and into various government agencies concerned about security. New scanners that use less controversial radio waves will replace the full-body scan machines.