United States v. Daniel Kuualoha Aukai

We must decide whether a prospective commercial airline passenger, who presented no identification at check-in, and who voluntarily walked through a metal detector without setting off an alarm, can then prevent a government-ordered secondary screening search by stating he has decided not to fly and wants to leave the terminal. We hold that such passenger cannot prevent the secondary search because such search comports with the Fourth Amendment’s requirement that a search be reasonable where, as here, the initial screening was “inconclusive” as defined in Torbet v. United Airlines, 298 F.3d 1087, 1089-90 (9th Cir.2002). We need not and therefore do not decide whether the same would be true were the secondary screening more intrusive or were it triggered by the subjective evaluation of the prospective passenger by airline or security personnel rather than more objective criteria such as a screening machine alarm being triggered, random selection, or, as here, the prospective passenger’s failure to present identification upon checking in.

I.

A.

On February 1, 2003, Defendant-Appellant Daniel Kuualoha Aukai arrived at the Honolulu International Airport intending to take a Hawaiian…