@Seaofclouds – but the ticket would have indicated that, indeed, @Jaxk was going to be late for the flight. There was a way for the TSA to determine that the reason was the truth.
Refusing the search is not an additional probable cause for a search. Regardless of the fact that these things are making the news (1) not everyone is clear on what they involve, (2) not everyone is paying attention to the new requirements I’m sure, (3) not everyone is thinking about them even when they do know about them, and forget, and (4) the news shows that people are very upset with them, and therefore might try to refuse based on rights-grounds.
This is the problem that I mentioned in other threads on this – though airports are, properly I think, areas of higher security with a particular government interest as they are ports of foreign entry as well as domestic travel in a lot of cases, refusal of consent for search should not be viewed as additional suspicious behavior – it is your constitutional right. Consent should and must be given freely and clearly, at the point of the search. Therefore, if any consent is issued it should be at a maximum considered implied consent, which legally should be retracted at the point of refusing a search, or clarified that there was no clear consent, and that again is a Constitutional right.
The idea that refusing to consent or retracting consent of implied consent to a search, particularly when it is unclear what level of invasion of privacy the search will constitute, is one of those times where we aren’t clear on what our rights are, and have them slowly taken from us without us really knowing. When you refuse or retract implied consent, you are being a U.S. citizen – nothing more, nothing less.