At an airport recently, Princeton constitutional law professor Walter F. Murphy found himself on the FAA's terrorist watch list. Here's what happened next:
One of the two people to whom I talked asked a question and offered a frightening comment: "Have you been in any peace marches? We ban a lot of people from flying because of that." I explained that I had not so marched but had, in September, 2006, given a lecture at Princeton, televised and put on the Web, highly critical of George Bush for his many violations of the Constitution. "That'll do it," the man said.UPDATE: Wired's Threat Level blog suggests that an incompetent employee is to blame: "After having spent more than four years reporting on watchlists, filing Freedom of Information Act requests, and talking with persons flagged by the lists, I have never seen a single case of a person being put on the list for activities protected by the First Amendment."
