Assuming it becomes law, I suspect that the Justice Department will seek and obtain an injunction to prevent it from taking effect while the case is litigated. Once the injunction is in place, it will be business as usual until the Court rules. The losing side will possibly appeal, but I think this is probably a non-starter as a practical matter.
NH is pursuing a similar bill.
Ok thanks.
So if the bill passes what are the chances that Texas will rush to arrest a TSA worker before the injunction is granted?
I checked for press releases from Whitehouse.gov and I cant find any press releases with any statements in the last year about air travel security.
Machiavelli 101 would suggest that the correct procedure would be to go ahead and let the TSA shut the flights down and then step in and fire some high level people at TSA.
Is there any citation for the TSA threatening to shut down flights in Texas other than a quote from a supporter of the bill?
My guess is that if there is some period between which the law is enacted and an injunction is granted, a TSA agent would ask permission to frisk a passenger going through security. If the passenger grants permission, this law would not be violated. If the passenger does not grant permission, then I would guess they would have their ticket confiscated and be escorted out of the airport, as it should be.
But I have zero doubt that Texas, New Hampshire, or any other state has no ability whatsoever to pass laws that override Federal laws pertaining to the safety of interstate commerce. That’s a no-brainer.
Would interstate commerce apply if they fly withing Texas? It’s a large state, and I’m sure people fly from one side to another all the time.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/tx/7620673.html
I think the question is whether the TSA actually has the authority to search law abiding citizens who aren’t even suspected of a crime. You should also check out the TSA web site. They are already talking about similar programs for trains and are working on programs for buses. It is pretty clear that the TSA thinks they have the same authority over anyone using any transportation system that they have over airline passengers.
The bill actually failed in the Texas Senate last May; Perry just brought it up again during the Special Session. Last month:
More details of the colorfully worded proposition here:
If it should happen to pass this time, lawyers will get busy & things will be worked out. If not, there will be weeping, moaning & gnashing of teeth. (Maybe somebody can market The Texas Anus Guard. Get those A&M scientists to work!) Whatever. Perry will keep banging it out to the cheap seats–running for President on the platform: The Federal Government Sucks! Put Me In Charge!
From the previously cited Houston Chronicle article:
dbx820 put it more succinctly:
Of course. Those flights are still regulated by the FAA, how could one claim that they may not be subject to other Federal regulation?
To your general point that some type of probable cause is needed to search airline passengers, you are arguing against nearly half a century of practice and case law that holds that the government may undertake “administrative searches” to promote the security of an activity regulated by the Federal government.
As to searching people getting on buses or trains, I think you’re making a slippery slope argument. Whether searches are good policy for those modes of transportation is a different question than whether security agents should go to jail for frisking airline passengers.
There is no doubt that the Federal Government would seek and obtain an emergency injunction before any enforcement of this law happens. The chances of a screener being arrested or all air travel to Texas being shut down approach zero. The chance that Texas would prevail in court against the TSA does not approach zero. It is zero.
This is simply impotent political posturing.
Get enough states on board on an issue of vital importance, and it’s the states that will trump anything the courts might say. I imagine that little detail will be in the back of the mind of the PTB.
Complete nonsense, as established in Grant v. Lee.
I don’t whine. Thanks to the TSA, I simply refuse to travel through any portal controlled by those self important, voyeuristic wastes of taxpayer money.
Well, Perry has been known to fly the Secession flag. Which doesn’t exactly mesh with his presidential aspirations.
Just another Aggie Joke…
Great user name/ post title combo.
No. The holding in Grant v. Lee was that Lee didn’t have enough states on board.
You make a good point, but there is also a balancing requirement:
The fact of the matter is that TSA search procedures have never detected a terrorist. We have a balance where one side of the scale is empty. At the very least this argues that the TSA was an unnecessary overreaction and for a Status Quo Ante 9/11.
How slippery is the slope when I’m linking to stuff on TSA own web site.
But there’s also not been a case of a terrorist hijacking or bombing a plane that was screened by the TSA. You could argue that the TSA screening is so effective that terrorists haven’t figured a way around it yet, so they haven’t even tried.
Is there any evidence to support that hypothesis? We have a huge data dump from when we bagged Bin Laden and there isn’t an operational reason to suppress it, since Al Qaeda already knows we have it.
The fact that all Al Qaeda international operations have been curtailed point to effective counter terrorist operations rather than anything that TSA has done.
BTW, here is the TSA doing searches of passengers at a bus station in Tampa.
I loved the TSA comment: