We have all been humiliated at the hands of the Transportation Security Administration, but this time the TSA may have to pay a price for stepping over the line.
U.S. Sen. Rand Paul is the latest victim.
He told AP: “he was stopped briefly by security at the Nashville airport when a scanner found an ‘anomaly’ on his knee.”
As a US Senator Rand Paul uses this airport a lot. It is about an hour from his Bowling Green, Kentucky home.
Paul asked for another scan but refused a hand pat down by TSA.
He said he was “detained” in a small cubicle and missed his flight to Washington for a Senate session.
This particular detention raises some serious constitutional questions.
The US Constitution says in Article One Section Six (speaking of federal elected officials):
“They 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; and for any Speech or Debate in either House, they shall not be questioned in any other Place.”
The Founders didn’t want the elected representatives of the people to be harassed by government functionaries such as the over empowered airport security guards that work for TSA.
Floyd has his own way of dealing with their thuggish behavior.
Whenever they come to grope him, he has a sentence that is useful to back them off their most invasive of maneuvers.
He always says, “I have a medical condition that makes my genitals sore, so please try and keep your hands away from my testicles.”
This sentence keeps all but the most thuggish TSA guards from fondling his private parts.
But we are hopeful that this confrontation with a senator may lead to a change in the rules.
There is no need to fondle breasts and feel the crotch of either sex.
It is not surprising that it was a member of the Paul family that had the courage to confront these illegal searches. His father, Congressman Ron Paul is the only Republican presidential candidate to call for the immediate abolition of the TSA.
Ron Paul said in reaction to his son’s detention that the TSA shouldn’t be “spending so much time with people who wouldn’t attack us.”
In a prepared statement he said the TSA, “The police state in this country is growing out of control. One of the ultimate embodiments of this is the TSA that gropes and grabs our children, our seniors, and our loved ones and neighbors with disabilities. The TSA does all of this while doing nothing to keep us safe.
“That is why my ‘Plan to Restore America,’ in additional to cutting $1 trillion dollars in federal spending in one year, eliminates the TSA.”
Americans have suffered enough humiliation at the hands of TSA.
It is time to repeal the laws that make us subject to these Unconstitutional searches just for the privilege of flying on an airplane.
(Floyd and Mary Beth Brown are best selling authors and speakers. To comment on this column, e-mail browns@caglecartoons.com.)