PING -
“In performing its duties, the Commission, through its Board or designated employees or agents, may:Enter upon the WMATA Rail System and, upon reasonable notice and a finding by the chief executive officer that a need exists, upon any lands, waters, and premises adjacent to the WMATA Rail System, including, without limitation, property owned or occupied by the federal government, for the purpose of making inspections, investigations, examinations, and testing as the Commission may deem necessary to carry out the purposes of this MSC Compact, and such entry shall not be deemed a trespass.”
” it violates one of the basic tenants of the U.S. Constitution.”
These people never learn. Any agency or police force that decides to do a warrantless search will end up paying big bucks. This has been settled before.
My reading is that it protects the agency from the charge of trespass. The INTENT being to enable the agents of Metrorail to gain access to their facilities without the neeed for:
1) prior approval of the property owner for lands next to the Metro rail property
and
2) without the need for a warrant to enter and cross such lands
while the INTENT may be reasonable, the wording and execution of this law leaves a lot to be desired. Lots of other ways this could have been addressed.
Similar to the Patriot Act — much government overreach and invasion of privacy, but hey, it’s for our security, right? We want to catch the terrorists, right? The government would never use this power against us law-abiding citizens, right?
I don’t expect to live in a safe world.
I expect to live in a free country. Respect the Constitution.
We're governed by traitors!
NSA and warrantless searches. All hail Big Brother.
The law is invalid and therefore not binding. Those who voted for it need to be stripped of their powers.
Not to defend this unconstitutional bill, but people will shrug, since health and safety inspectors can enter businesses at will all the time.
Sensationalism.
And exaggerated characterization, and no threat to any person.
The 4th Amendment will trump any law by Congress in any court in the land.
And that assumes this Safety Commission actually violates somebodys rights.
This is clickbait BS!
Note this line in the text:
30. In carrying out its purposes, the Commission, through its Board or designated employees or agents, shall, consistent with federal law:
All that pesky stuff like getting warrants and subpoenas is part of what's consistent w/federal law.
“...basic tenants of...”
Sorry, but a “tenant” is a person who occupies a place; a “tenet” is a basic principle.
Sloppy English indicates sloppy logic; good way to lose.
tenets
Ping to a hyperbolic blog-pimp.
“Hey...if you don’t have anything to hide...”
It’s simply astounding how criminal and treasonous this bill is to the Bill of Rights and U.S. Constitution.
Hopefully, the lawsuits will start.
Just wait until they say if it’s legal to do on rails, then why not highways and roads that receive federal funds?
I suppose the fact that the title is all caps should have been a clue.
1) Limited to premises adjacent to the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority system
2) Courts will have to confine this law to within constitutional limits of probable cause and precedent that requires a warrant for house searches except for exigent circumstances or consent.