Posted on 05/27/2011 11:11:16 AM PDT by markomalley
A Utah lawmaker has filed a bill to ban controversial airport pat-downs that had been considered by Texas before lawmakers there relented.
The Texas House of Representatives had passed a bill that would have made it illegal for Transportation Security Administration agents to perform hand searches at airport security checkpoints unless there was probable cause. But Texas senators got cold feet after the U.S. Attorney General's office threatened to cancel flights to the state if the bill passed.
Prior to that, Utah state Rep. Carl Wimmer (R) said he filed a similar measure for next year in his state.
"Opened a bill file today which will prohibit TSA pat downs in Utah without reasonable suspicion," Wimmer wrote on his Facebook page this week. "Texas needs us to stand with them."
Under the legislation Texas backed away from, TSA agents would have been charged with a misdemeanor crime for patting passengers down. The penalty would have been a $4,000 fine and one year in jail.
TSA argued the proposed legislation was unconstitutional because it would violate the Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution. In a letter to Texas senators, U.S. District Attorney for Western Texas John Murphy said "TSA would likely be required to cancel any flight or a series of flights for which it could not ensure the safety of the passengers and crew."
Wimmer told a Utah newspaper that the threat constituted "absolute overbearing audacity" that "should really offend any red-blooded American."
"It does not feel like America when you are going through a TSA checkpoint at the airport," Wimmer said in an interview with the Utah County Daily Herald.
Wimmer's legislation cannot be approved until the next Utah legislative session begins in 2012, but if it passes, it would be the first state law restricting TSA's security techniques.
This Constitution, and the laws of the United States which shall be made in pursuance thereof; and all treaties made, or which shall be made, under the authority of the United States, shall be the supreme law of the land; and the judges in every state shall be bound thereby, anything in the Constitution or laws of any State to the contrary notwithstanding.
Seems to me that a state law nullifying a clearly unconstitutional federal regulation (not law, regulation) does not come anywhere close to violating the above.
But, hey, since when does bare-knuckle power need to concern itself with constitutionality?
I think a local sheriff somewhere could make themselves a good career on going into airports and policing the TSA and arresting the TSA agents and their supervisors for violation of state and local laws that the TSA agents engage in every day and have a show down with the FEDS with a couple thousand angry citizens surrounding the local sheriff’s department forming human chains to keep the feds out.
I think it could come down to this eventually....
one TSA screener being held in a county jail on a sexual assault charge would start all the dominoes a’tumblin’
If they'd had any testicles, they'd have taken the TSA to court and made them prove either:
a. that the Scan & Grope is necessary to ensure safety, OR b. that safety can be perfectly ensured short of banning air travel entirely. But, those willing to give up essential liberties ....
Never happen; permissiom to ‘cop a feel’ whenever desired is part of TSA’s compensation package.
Wake up sheeple!
Valid point!!! It clearly states laws, and not regulations....the loophole is there, plain as day, for anyone with the guts to jump through it..
Last weekend at MSP, I was porno-scanned, wanded, gropped and swabbed for explosives.
The entire time the TSA agent was trying to provoke me into saying something which would get me arrested.
I’m glad I don’t have to fly.
We’re like a dog whose abusive master keeps poking with a stick to see how much it will take before it snaps.
Trouble is while he’s got the sharp stick in one hand, he’s got a pistol in the other, and Fido knows what will happen if he tries it.
Sooner or later you will drive a dog crazy treating it like that, and it won’t care a crap any more, nor will it choose to go on living under those conditions.
At that point it will tuck tail, whimper, give up, lie down and die....
..Or go for the bastard’s testicles in one last burst of primal ferocity, hoping to get one good chomp in before his brains get blown out.
Who knows? If he’s really quick, Master might drop his heater in surprise and pain and we have one free dog with a couple hundred pounds of fresh meat at his disposal.
Either way, sooner or later an abused animal... or a population... will quit caring a crap one way or another.
How close are we to that breaking point, Dawg?
this is going to result in a mass insurrection at an airport checkpoint one of these days
I thought they were just groping people, not interrogating them.
What were they asking?
If the Texas State Senate is going to chicken out, we aut to make fun of em for it. Then get someone else to take a stand, someone with the balls to do the right thing and stand up to this bully.
If the State of Texas can’t do that how is it that the people of Texas are suppose to beleive they will stand up to other criminal bullys?
If a criminal cartel threatens to shut down Texas Airports will the Legislator just roll over and play dead to appease them?
Ts this a humiliating weakness for Texas? Stand up for Texas pride, history, and traditions. Call theses bullys out!
They ain’t got no kind of right to do what they are doing to the people of Texas and its your job to AT LEAST call em out on it!
Kstewskis — ping to police state in post 9.
He stood there holding my wallet saying “You got a problem?”
I wanted to say, “Ya, you want to give me my wallet back”
Another freeper had something similar where the TSA agent started checking all his credit cards.
How close are we to that breaking point, Dawg?
LOL!
Another 5 min and I was going to give him a lecture of how Israeli’s run their security system. Number one rule is the Israeli’s DON’T hire high school drop-outs or Psy majors.
At what point will they go beyond intrusive searches into “interrogations”? Must We the dhimmie sheeple now be waterboarded naked for at least a half hour prior to being allowed to board our flight?
Do they have separate lines for Jews & Christians now, so that we won’t get in the way of the superior Muslims?
That High School prom where the TSA Gestapo was feeling up the girls before they could enter really took the cake, didn’t it?
It’s amazing that one of these TSA goons hasn’t been seriously punched out or shot yet. I can’t for the life of me decide whether that’s an indication of American’s remarkable capcity for self restraint... or just a passive, habitual resignation to tyranny.
What do you chalk it up to?
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