John Gilmore has send Lessig a very good piece explaining why he wears a pin that says "Suspected Terrorist" when he flies:
The button is not a joke. It's a serious statement which one may agree or disagree with. The point that people seem to be missing is that a "suspected terrorist" is not the same as a "terrorist". Yet, that's exactly the conflation that has occurred: treat every citizen like a suspect, and every suspect like a terrorist…
On the BA flight, in my carry-on bag, I had brought the current issue of Reason magazine, which has a cover story with my picture and the label "Suspected Terrorist". (It didn't even occur to me to censor my reading material on the flight; I must need political retraining. I hadn't read most of the issue, including Declan's piece in it, plus I wanted to show it to Europeans I met on my vacation.) During the British Airways incident I never removed the magazine from my bag, but supposing I had done so, and merely sat in my seat and read it, would that have been grounds to remove me from the flight (button or no button)?
I am not a lawyer (lucky me!) but I do follow legal issues. The carriage of passengers by common carriers is governed by their tariffs, filed with the government. Common carriers are NOT permitted to refuse service to anybody for any reason. In return they are not held liable for the acts of their customers (e.g. transporting dangerous substances, purloined intellectual property, etc). BA's "Conditions of Carriage" are part of their tariffs (other parts include their prices, etc). You will note paragraph 7: they can refuse passage… 7) If you have not obeyed the instructions of our ground staff or a member of the crew of the aircraft relating to safety or security. The crew ONLY has the authority to order passengers around when the orders relate to safety or security. An order to cease reading a book would not qualify.
