US District Judge Marcia G. Cooke today dismissed my case, saying that “without having been provided a copy of this unpublished statute or regulation [the SOP], I am unable to conduct any meaningful inquiry as to the finality of the Screening Checkpoint SOP” and “this argument would be better addressed to the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals.”

As brief background for those of you at this blog for the first time, the government replied to my lawsuit against the airport nude body scanners and molestation procedures by saying that anything the TSA “orders” is not reviewable by US District Courts, and rather all cases must be filed in the Court of Appeals. The reason the TSA wants this is because in the Court of Appeals, there is no jury, no discovery, and I don’t get to present evidence — essentially, the court would take the TSA’s word on issues of fact.

With no disrespect intended to the Hon. Judge Cooke, I find this to be a bit of a cop-out (essentially, “I couldn’t decide, so I’ll dismiss the case and let the higher court deal with it”), though I am happy to appeal this dismissal to the 11th Circuit, and will do so as soon as possible. Note that this is appealing the decision that there is no jurisdiction, not transferring the case to the 11th Circuit.

The appellate process is expensive (the filing fee is $450 alone!) — if you would like to donate to this cause, please feel free to send donations by PayPal to jon [at] fourtentech.com.

This fight is only beginning.

Corbett v. US – Dismissed (.pdf)