Since the creation of the Transportation Security Administration, airport security checkpoints have become a new locus of First Amendment activity. Unlike the activity at issue in the traditional body of cases on speech at airport terminal buildings, the message conveyed by protesters is often one specifically about the airport itself, or the governmental activities conducted therein. Katie Mapes looks at recent court decisions regarding security-oriented protest activity and other First Amendment issues at airport security checkpoints and what lessons they hold for airport operators.
