I just recently got a new passport with an RFID chip in it. Obviously, tampering with a passport is a federal crime and so of course I wouldn't do anything like that, but what happens if, through no fault of my own, something happens to the RFID chip and it becomes inoperable? Would I just be processed like someone with an old-style passport, or would they assume that I, despite being an upstanding and law-abiding citizen, broke the law by doing something to my passport to disable the chip?

(We may assume that the passport does in fact show no signs of tampering or deliberate interference with the RFID chip or antenna).