This will be fun to watch.
“Senator Paul is being detained at the Nashville Airport by the TSA,” Sen. Rand Paul’s Facebook post reads. “We will update you as the situation develops.”Senator Paul - the whole nation is watching.
Sen. Rand Paul’s chief of staff Doug Stafford told The Daily Caller the Senator “was detained by the TSA after their scanner had an ‘anomaly’ on the first scan.”
“He offered to go through again,” Stafford said in an email. “The TSA said he could only have a full body pat down. He would not consent to it. He offered to go through the scanner again. The situation is ongoing.”
BZ, the TSA needs to be humbled. They've picked on the wrong Senator, methinks.
51 comments:
As I understand it, the Constitution grants an immunity from arrest for members of Congress while in office.
Regardless, I'm headed out to buy an extra-large bag of popcorn for this one. The next set of hearings regarding the TSA will likely be quite entertaining as well. :)
It is my belief that the TSA should be abolished and the various transportation entities, the sirlines, trains, etc, be responsible for their own security arrangements.
Let the public decide which methods, if any they are willing to suffer.
TSA does not need to be "humbled" - they need to be eliminated.
Ah, but Tim, the TSA can't arrest anyone, nor even detain them. All they can do is call the real police if they suspect an evildoer is about.
“The Senators and Representatives…shall in all Cases, except Treason, Felony and Breach of the Peace, be privileged from Arrest during their Attendance at the Session of their respective Houses, and in going to and returning from the same….” according to Article I, Section 6.
Let us hope that the charges of unlawful detainment are immediately filed, and that Napolitano and Holder are named as co-defendants.
This will be another SCOTUS case, methinks.
If they touch me in a place they shouldn't, they'll be neutered...
As much as I don't like all the security at airports, we can't relax ourselves into thinking that AQ is gone or under control. Worse still, even with all the controls in place likes of the shoe bomber are getting thru... And while profiling of checks could help much, increasingly islamists are trying to recruit native agents capable of blending in. With the volume of traffic to be checked in, I think we might stumbled into a mission impossible. Still. so far risks of air travel are less than of travel by road. Our enemies in Iraq and AFG have shown uncanny capacity of finding the types of persons least likely to be checked to carry out suicide bombings...
THEY CAN VOTE IN KENTUCKY! WHEN DID THIS HAPPEN I DIDNT EVEN THINK THEY COULD READ!
O:-)
They'll just claim his refusal was a Breach of the Peace.
I sense a vote for a TSA budget cut next year :-$
Then TSA's budget will shrink faster than the Pentagon's.
By the way 'Phib, I agree with your "Paul family" assessment, not a fan of the dad, but I like the son more and more as time goes on
I don't think they are foolish enough to do that. Rand Paul won't have a Public Defender, and a charge of disturbing the peace (there is no "breach of peace" as a criminal charge in America) or disorderly conduct has to have malicious intent, or intent to disrupt. Paul was obviously not behaving with malicious intent, nor could his conduct be construed as desiring to disrupt TSA activities taking place with other passengers.
If someone was that ill-advised to charge him with either of those offenses, they would likely get crushed, and the public spectacle would be quite an embarrassment.
The "anomoly" that set the scanner off is a programmed, random anomoly. This gives the TSA a pretext to physically acost you, er, uh I mean pat you down.
I believe that is "in transit" to and from their duties in DC.
Chief Justice Roberts does not suffer branches of government trampling on each other to the detriment of the Constitution. I agree with you, URR. This thing can definitely go high-order.
The fact that he was going to Washington DC for a Senate vote is everything in this case. I expect to see the Senate and House Homeland Security Committees file subpoenas with the TSA and Secret Service as to what security measures the President and his family are exposed to...
I, and many other red blooded Americans, are willing to contribute to the greater security of our trains and the such by carrying loaded, permited firearms
Dave, in this case, Paul was headed to DC for a vote.
Read, type, and use (or not use) the Caps Lock key. with a bourbon in the other hand.
Cut to zero, hopefully.
And we will pay for them from out own pockets, saving quite a bit of money.
Neutered? Don't go easy on them.
I got slapped from the wife when I offered to let one of the hot female TSAs search me. :) She has no sense of humor.
I think that Rand Paul is terrific. I hope we get a few more just like him in the next Senate.
And...oh yes. They've DEFINITELY picked on the wrong Senator.
this has happened to me 4 times in a row at Norfolk airport.
PS. the "like" is for your wife.
@LT B:
And what airport do you go through? That or our definitions of "hot" diverge... ;)
w/r, SJS
I know that underwires will cause metal detectors to go off.
With Congress in session, when are the Members of Congress not "going to and returning from the same?" This was written when the Members were riding horseback to get to the Capitol, hardly seems that a Member is at the same level of inconvenience when boarding a plane and then to their chauffeured SUV limo.
BTW, carrying a firearm onto a plane would be a felony and could result in the privilege of an arrest. TSA, like them or not, are caught in a catch-22 - enforce their own rules or make an obvious exception for a member of the privileged class. No win in either case. I think the TSA has to follow through and I wonder how the Senator is going to get back to Washington, DC, if not by plane? Except now he is "clean." Makes you wonder if he was hiding something...
Suspect - what is your source regarding the programming of the scanner. If you are not an employee of the scanner manufacturer, you cannot know this. If you are an employee, I would say not for long.
AM,
Regardless of the mode or comfort level of travel, the intent of the law is to forbid an chief executive from arresting a Congressman or Senator to prevent him/her from voting on a measure which the chief executive wants to block or defeat.
Shades of Charles I and the Rump Parliament. And with good reason.
Mark,
You impugn the actions of the Senator with no evidence. I may have spent most of law school in a drunken haze, but I do recall that defending one's constitutional right against unlawful search does not create probable cause or reasonable suspicion, despite what some law enforcement types would like to claim.
nope. Sportsbra all 4 times. And the TSA worker told me on one occasion that it was random.
I think the Senator has standing to force this to the Supreme Court. I would like to see the TSA go away... bang for buck they are face palm fail...
Pfft. Bourbon. Whisky is the best, followed by Rum.
Had some Bourbon beer a few weeks ago have to admit that stuff was great. Sorry whenever i hear the word kentucky i feel the need to strike.
Hell my sisters inlaws are going to be kentuckians............sigh.
Not a lawyer here, but I don't know if you can consider it an unreasonable or "illegal search," even in the case of a Congressman or Senator. Paul was not arrested, but was denied the privilege of commercial air travel for failure to comply with existing regulations. I certainly have my own low opinion regarding these TSA practices, but several prominent cases have tended to uphold the legal authority of the Dept of Homeland Security to conduct these pat-downs.
I'm not defending TSA actions in the least, but this is a very nuanced issue...
Again - not a lawyer here - but I would think that "detainment" in this example with Paul does not rise to the level of "Arrest" per the intent of the Constitution, as Paul was free to go at any time.
Physical pat downs fall under the Terry v. Ohio line of cases.
They are searches. They are searches that do not necessarily require a warrant, but htey do require reasonable suspicion. A random buzzer (and I believe the Senator, as I too have been told by a TSA Agent that the buzzer was random) is not reasonable suspicion.
my like was for you - I'd joke like that too.
But I'm wondering where the 'hot' agents are.
He went right to the press:
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/jan/23/tsas-intrusions-undermine-security/
Time for the TSA to go. It amazes me the powers that agency gives it's employees to detain citizens with no cause and without them having proved to be qualified to do so in any way. I don't feel my right to travel should be at the whim of the high-school dropout, 2 year TSA employee. Abolish the TSA, arm the pilots, reenforce the cockpit door, and place strict limits on the amount of fuel planes can carry based on their destination. Once the terrorists realize that they (at best) will only be able to kill the passengers on the plane and some people on the ground, the risk/reward goes way down, and they will likely find other targets.
My ankle set off the machine due to all the scar tissue. They have to pat down my ankle once in awhile as it shows up funny on the scan. It is his right to deny the pat down.
SJS,
It was Tampa, think Latina, w/ just a wee bit of makeup, curves, and hair done just so. Oh yeah, there is a good one in the bunch of bad ones every once in awhile.
I always had a "Random" "enhanced screening" when returning from a (merchant) ship job overseas and boarding a domestic flight after clearing customs and immigration, or going to one. Always on a short notice one way ticket. My passport read "occupation - Merchant Seaman". Every time. Ditto cross country flights to a US port.
Random, oh yes. One time they confiscated a pair of nail clippers from my shaving kit. My fault, the cab from the ship was early so I grabbed the kit and tossed into my laptop, plotting tools and license never leaves my hand roller bag on top of my rainslicker, and ran for the cab.
Random.
While i can agree with the armored cabin and armed guards you cant short the planes on fuel. Sometimes they have to wait that would be bad.
And no one is going to accept just losing planes full of people that would bring another TSA anyways and the truth is we just need to profile its simple as that. IS it Nice or PC? nope Does it make you feel happy about how enlightened you are? Nope does it work? Ask the israelies.
Can you imagine the trouble I would be in, if I, as a police officer, decided to start searching people randomly?
9/11 changed the equation of hijacking forever. Before 9/11 the best option was to sit quietly and wait for it to be over. After 9/11? .... you had better be prepared to kill all of the passengers as they will no longer be sitting quietly in their seats.
I practice spork combatives.
The spork is the preferred weapon of Bucky Katt in the comic strip Get Fuzzy.
Yep. And a few years back, the younger of the Kennedy Political class claimed it whan pulled over for DUI in the DC area....and got away with it...but then, he was a D, and we have come to accept such behavior as...like "OK."
US Senators are a pretty safe bet. The incidence of hijacking and multiple murder suicide by self detonation is relatively low.
Kind of like merchant mariners, except the mariners have to have a background investigation by the FBI to get the job.
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