Posted on 06/08/2011 9:33:22 AM PDT by smoothsailing
June 8, 2011
Glenn Evans
Longview Rep. David Simpson’s airport pat-down bill is taking flight despite not being on the governor’s list of items for lawmakers to consider in special session.
This Sunday, a rally for the ban on sexually intrusive searches by federal agents was followed by Simpson receiving a standing ovation from the State Republican Executive Committee.
The measure is set for a public hearing Thursday morning in the House Committee on Criminal Jurisprudence. Republican Simpson said Tuesday he is eager to lay out his bill, re-named House Bill 41 for the special session that began May 31.
Simpson’s bill is nearly the same in special session as the measure that won approval in the House, but floundered in the Senate in the regular session’s waning week. Simpson has added wording that passengers may give informed consent to such a search.
“We very much support it being on the (governor’s) call,” Tea Party Caucus Advisory Committee Chairwoman JoAnn Fleming of Tyler said of HB41.
“We support this coming back, because we didn’t appreciate the way it was dumped at the end there.”
The bill got dumped when supporters in the Senate began withdrawing their backing as Transportation Security Administration agents in Austin and a U.S. attorney warned the law would close Texas airports.
The bill forbids Transportation Security Administration agents from touching people’s private areas without consent during enhanced searches being implemented by the federal agency.
A showdown in courts appeared on the horizon should the bill become law, but the federal intervention in late May preempted those concerns.
Once Gov. Rick Perry called the 30-day special session, Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst wrote Perry recommending the bill be added to the session’s agenda.
That had not happened by Tuesday, and a spokeswoman for Perry would not comment on its likelihood.
Simpson, though, repeated an earlier observation that Perry is making hay with a vocal state-rights stance.
“It fits right along with his book and policy,” Simpson said, adding that federal officials have yet to tell him exactly what harm the law would cause them. “We’re really not fighting any federal law. I told them, show me the law that compels them to touch private parts as a condition of travel. Policemen can’t even do what they do without probable cause.”
Meanwhile, Simpson was encouraged by Sunday’s rally for the bill.
“I didn’t organize it,” he said. “It was organized by five or six grass roots organizations — 200 to 300 people showed up, and they were from all parts of the spectrum. They were liberal, conservative, Democrats, Republicans. The most interesting thing was at a (State Republican Executive Committee) meeting after the rally. I spoke to them three to five minutes. They gave me a standing ovation, the place just erupted.”
The committee, which steers the state party’s platform, then endorsed the bill 61-1, he said.
“Yes,” Fleming said. “I heard of that. ... This (bill) is an opportunity to push back against the federal government. The government’s never really answered the question to cite what gives them the right to do these types of searches. While, at the same time, they’re not doing things they need to do to protect us — for instance, securing the border.”
The regular session was dotted with non-binding resolutions asserting Texas’ right to steer its own ship, all summed up in the U.S. Constitution’s 10th Amendment, which leaves items not specified in that document in the states’ hands.
Those were nice, Fleming said, but all hat no cattle.
“Sometimes, bullies need to be called,” she said. “If the states don’t start standing up — the same thing could happen to these health care compacts.”
Fleming referred to agreements among states to share resources in alternative approaches to the national health care reform act.
“If that (health care compact) passes in the special session and the governor signs it into law, that’s where we can hopefully get the whole health care legislation fast-tracked to the (U.S.) Supreme Court,” she said.
"If the anti enhanced pat down bill is passed in the Texas Legislature and is signed into law by Governor Rick Perry, the question arises; will the US federal government carry out its threat of cancelling air travel to and from Texas?
On many levels it seems like a mad threat to make. Such a cancellation would not only be devastating to the economy of Texas, which has been pretty healthy compared to the rest of the country, but also to the United States as a whole. The cutoff of commerce and travel that such a ban would cause would be like taking the economy, already ailing and trembling at the edge of the abyss, and taking a baseball bat to it.
Any reelection chances President Obama would entertain would be doomed. Not only would the economy go back into recession, which presidents tend to get blames for anyway, but Obama will have been seen to have deliberately caused it. It is question, therefore, of how stubborn his government is over this matter."
Should this law be signed by Perry, Holder will simply file a suit against it, get an injunction issued by one of his favorite judges, and tie it up in the molasses slow court system until after next year’s elections. If Obama loses, the outcome will not be important to Obama, Holder, Big Sis or any of this corrupt administration.
Frankly I am suprised Perry has not already added the anti groping bill to the special session. I read that there is speculation he is afraid it will hurt his chances if he wants to run for President. I hope that is not the reason.
The Feds are great at threats and intimidation. Truth be told trying to shut down the airline traffic to and from Texas would be logistically impossible. Half the flights from the East going to CA have connect through Dallas. I have done it many times.
If Obama acts on closing air transport in and out of Texas then a very real case for secession can be made. I wonder if Obambi has the cojones to start a civil war?
This may be a bigger ‘fuse’ than people realize. The TSA has threatened if this goes through, to block all flights in and out of Texas airports, essentially grounding two of the biggest hubs in the US and risking several large airline businesses (as well as all the small businesses that rely on them as well).
I could see the fedgov stepping in and trying to force the airports to ignore this law- if so, it could be a major contention point against the administration as the opposition to the T&A patdowns crosses party lines.
>>On many levels it seems like a mad threat to make. Such a cancellation would not only be devastating to the economy of Texas, which has been pretty healthy compared to the rest of the country, but also to the United States as a whole. The cutoff of commerce and travel that such a ban would cause would be like taking the economy, already ailing and trembling at the edge of the abyss, and taking a baseball bat to it.<<
With AA and the old Continental routes based in Texas, stopping travel to Texas would slice the county in 2. It would not be just devastating, it would push us into a depression which would make the 30s look like a BBQ social.
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.
What could be more offensive to the idea of being "secure in their persons" than being sexually groped? Nothing, that's what - and that is the specific reason that we have laws against that even for (perhaps ESPECIALLY FOR) the police. Probable cause, supported by an oath or affirmation, and done in the form of a warrant - go ahead, search someone. No probable cause - then hands off.
I really want TX to pass this law - it'd be like the whole state saying to Odumbo: "Please, please, Mr. Odumbo, don't throw me in that there briar patch."
Oh, if Perry doesn't sign such a law, and if he lends any support to defeating it, then I will actively oppose him for President - and I'm from Texas.
Not only that, Texas would most likely close rail and road traffic to and from Mexico. This would be devastating to the Trans-Texas to Canada corridor.
Either way, the Texas Rangers will be busy.
...and maybe we can slow down shipments of oil and gas to the rest of the country for a while. In the heat of the summer the power outages and lack of gas won’t make it too pleasant elsewhere, and it can (and should) all be blamed on the heavy hand of the feds, personified by Obama.
The simple fact is that they’re threatening to close down half of this country’s flights in defense of groping little kids and old ladies. Overbearing morons!
It seems to me that Perry would benefit politically from pushing the legislation, so I can't understand why he would think otherwise. I'm not from Texas so there must be something I'm missing.
Well, I'm not from Texas, but that's the way I see it too.
Perry should be itching for a fight like this, particularly if he entertains presidential ambitions.
I agree with you. You would think this anti TSA bill would really put him in tight with the Tea Party.
If Perry whacks Obama’s little TSA perverts, he will be popular with people all over the country. The airlines have admitted they are losing big money since Jan the man and her pervert agents hit the airports.
In the mean time, Obama and his media lie saying Amerians love themselves, their grandparents and kids being molested by Federal agents - it makes them feel “safe.” Apparently this is a big fat lie where bureaucrats tell the one who complains “you are the only one bothered” by our abuse. They do this to public school parents all the time.
So if Texas passes this law making it illegal to sexually molest flyers in Texas and Bammy carries through on his threat and shuts down transportation in Texas, it is going to blow up big time in the little fascist’s face.
Perry risks disruption of air services but if he expresses his outrage for the TSA violating the constitutional rights and dignity of Americans without waffeling, he’ll win big time and Bammy will lose. It will force the go along to get along Republicans to get off the fence about the abuses of the Patriot Act.
I've never seen or heard it said better! :)
Perry has got to do this!
It'll also force them and the Dems (esp. Odumbo and Jan the Man) to defend the molestations and the radiation-producing porn scanners.
I wonder how many "terrorists" - actual "I want to take down the plane with a bomb" terrorists, not someone pissed off at the pervert TSA agents who gets arrested - have been caught using these methods. More to the point, how many MORE have been caught vs. using the old method of going through a metal detector and having carry-ons X-rayed? I'm betting that the answer is a big, fat ZILCH. So we've spent billions, and affronted the dignity of millions of people, for NOTHING!
If Perry doesn't push and sign this legislation, he is a political wuss, and doesn't deserve to serve as President (assuming that he wants that job). Frankly, he won't even be qualified to be the Governor of Texas if he fails to try to protect his constituents from this wholesale abuse of our rights.
This applies to every Governor of every state. Perry has the chance to lead the way. If he doesn't he's yesterday's news.
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