The TSA can now refuse your request to opt out of the body scanner

A passenger passes through a full-body scanner at a TSA checkpoint.
(Image credit: David McNew/Getty Images)

Travelers who prefer to opt out of the full-body scanners at airport security may no longer be given that option, thanks to a rule change issued by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA).

"While passengers may generally decline [scanner] screening in favor of physical screening," the update stated, "TSA may direct mandatory [scanner] screening for some passengers as warranted by security considerations in order to safeguard transportation security." The considerations which would justify an agent's decision to refuse an opt-out are not specified.

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Bonnie Kristian

Bonnie Kristian was a deputy editor and acting editor-in-chief of TheWeek.com. She is a columnist at Christianity Today and author of Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community (forthcoming 2022) and A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today (2018). Her writing has also appeared at Time Magazine, CNN, USA Today, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and The American Conservative, among other outlets.