The Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), a leading privacy group, has asked a federal appeals court to suspend the U.S. government's program of introducing full-body imaging machines at airports.

According to the group, the imaging machines constitute a suspicionless search of all airport travelers in an extremely invasive way -- so invasive that it violates the reasonable standard contained in the Fourth Amendment.

Wired reports:

"The constitutional challenge aside, EPIC also charges that the Department of Homeland Security, in rolling out the devices, violated a host of bureaucratic policies requiring public review, including the Administrative Procedures Act. What's more, the group claims the machines, among other things, violate the federal Video Voyeurism Prevent Act, which protects against capturing improper images that violate one's privacy."

Further, scientists at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) sent a letter to the White House Office of Science and Technology in April warning of potential health risks -- including skin cancer -- from the scanners, which distribute a dose of radiation to the skin and underlying tissue.