The following information was released by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU):

Following a lawsuit filed by American Civil Liberties Union, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has revised its policies governing airline passenger screening to make clear that TSA agents are authorized to conduct searches related to safeguarding flight safety, not to engage in general law enforcement. Calling the policy changes a victory for civil liberties, the ACLU has moved to drop its lawsuit, originally filed in June on behalf of a traveler who was illegally detained and harassed by TSA agents at the airport after they discovered he was carrying approximately $4,700 in cash.

This new policy provides much needed clarity to TSA screeners and reflects the critical requirement that TSA agents must adhere to their important but limited mandate of protecting flight safety, said Ben Wizner, a staff attorney with the ACLU National Security Project. The airport is not a Constitution-free zone, and the price of traveling is not exposure to limitless government searches.

The ACLU filed its lawsuit in June on behalf of Steven Bierfeldt, who was detained on March 29, 2009 in a small room at Lambert-St. Louis International Airport and interrogated by TSA officials for nearly half an hour after he passed a metal box containing cash through a security checkpoint X-ray machine. Bierfeldt was carrying the cash in connection with his duties as the Director of Development for the Campaign for Liberty, a political organization that grew out of Congressman Ron Paul's presidential campaign. Bierfeldt repeatedly asked the agents to explain the scope of their authority to detain and interrogate him and received no explanation. Instead, the agents escalated the threatening tone of their questions and ultimately told Bierfeldt that he was being placed under arrest. Bierfeldt recorded audio of the incident with his iPhone.

In the lawsuit, Bierfeldt and the ACLU sought a court order requiring the TSA to bring its search policies into line with constitutional requirements for passenger privacy, arguing that passengers moving through pre-flight screening can only be subject to searches aimed at keeping weapons and explosives off airplanes. Bierfeldts experience proved that TSA searches had taken on a much broader scope.

In September, eight days before the governments response to the ACLU lawsuit was due, the TSA issued a new directive governing passenger screening searches. The new policy states clearly that screening may not be conducted to detect evidence of crimes unrelated to transportation security. In October, the TSA issued a second directive addressing the issues raised in the ACLUs lawsuit, stating that traveling with large amounts of currency is not illegal, and that to the extent bulk quantities of cash warrant searching, it is only to further security objectives.

It is a huge victory for civil liberties that TSA agents no longer have free reign to conduct sweeping, baseless searches and detain passengers who dont pose a threat to flight safety, said Bierfeldt. I do not believe I should give up my constitutional rights each time I choose to travel by plane, and I certainly do not want another innocent American to have to endure what I went through."