The Center for Individual Freedom (“CFIF”) recently signed on to a brief of amici curiae, which urges the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit to compel the Transportation Security Administration ("TSA") to comply with a year-old court order to give the public an opportunity to comment on the agency’s use of full-body scanners in airports. 

The brief weighs in support of a petition for writ of mandamus filed by the Electronic Privacy Information Center ("EPIC") in the case of EPIC v. DHS, in which last July the D.C. Circuit directed TSA to “promptly” initiate a legally required notice-and-comment rulemaking on the use of such scanners.  To date, TSA has failed to open such a public rulemaking pursuant to the D.C. Circuit’s order or offer a concrete timetable for its commencement.

The brief was organized by the Competitive Enterprise Institute.  In addition to CFIF, the brief was joined by Robert L. Crandall (former Chairman and CEO of AMR and American Airlines), the National Association of Airline Passengers, Americans for Tax Reform’s Digital Liberty, Electronic Frontier Foundation, The Rutherford Institute, Cyber Privacy Project, Center for Financial Privacy and Human Rights, and the Liberty Coalition.

A copy of the brief can be read by clicking here.*

Download and view the brief as it was filed with the court here (PDF).

UPDATE - (August 6, 2012):

* In the original brief filed with the D.C. Circuit, CFIF was incorrectly identified on the corporate disclosure statement as a 501(c)(3) corporation. CFIF is a 501(c)(4) corporation. A Notice of Errata correcting the error was filed with the court on August 1, 2012, and can be viewed by clicking here (PDF).