It's official: airport security gropings are "assault".

Phyllis Dintenfass, an unassuming, 62-year-old retired teacher from Wisconsin, has never committed a crime against persons or property. Yet she faces a year in prison and a $100,000 fine as a result of her collision with a federal official acting on that ideology.

Last September, Mrs. Dintenfass and her husband were passing through security prior to a flight at Appleton's Outagamie County Regional Airport. Since something she wore triggered metal detectors repeatedly, Mrs. Dintenfass was taken to a "secondary screening area" by a Transportation Security Administration (TSA) supervisor named Anita Gostisha. The would-be passenger meekly complied as Gostisha used an electronic "wand" to scan for metal objects.

Gostisha then used the back of her hands to check the area beneath Dintenfass' breasts, provoking her to "lash out." According to Dintenfass, her reaction was to reciprocate the unwanted and uninvited physical contact while saying, "How would you like it if I did that to you?" Gostisha claims that the middle-aged woman--uniformly described as mild-mannered and inoffensive--also "slammed her against the wall" which would certainly be a proportionate response to what reasonable people would consider a sexual assault. Dintenfass denied that accusation, while admitting to the retaliatory grope. On July 20, a federal jury found her guilty of "assaulting" a federal official by fondling her.

Dintenfass "punished Anita Gostisha for doing her job," whined federal Prosecutor Tim Funnell. U.S. Attorney Steven Bispukic added that TSA officers, who perform a "vital function," are "entitled to protection from assault."

Perhaps the only positive aspect of this case is that we now have an official acknowledgment from federal attorneys that the invasive, degrading physical contact regularly inflicted on air travelers by TSA drones is a form of "punishment" and "assault." But this implicit admission is bundled with the assumption that federal officials, who belong to a specially privileged and protected class, are entitled to assault common citizens--in the name of "homeland security," naturally.