Man Acquitted In Lawsuit Over Filming The TSA And Not Showing ID

from the good-for-him dept

A few folks have sent in variations on this story, involving how a guy named Phil Mocek has been acquitted of charges filed by the TSA after he refused to show TSA officials his ID back in 2009. Mocek had no ID on him and noted (correctly) that you do not, in fact, need ID to fly. He filmed the entire incident and then was charged with four misdemeanors: disorderly conduct, concealing his identity, refusing to obey a police officer, and criminal trespass. You can see the video here:

It turns out that Mocek was completely correct in that he did not need to have ID and he was well within his rights to film the encounter. At no point did he raise his voice or act in a “disorderly” manner, and it appears that the jury recognized that — and also recognized that the TSA and the police appeared to simply be annoyed at the guy for doing what was completely within the law.

Filed Under: airports, filming, id, phil mocek, rights, tsa