Texas Goes To War With U.S. Again: Perry Puts Ban On TSA Pat Downs Up For Vote Again
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Texas lawmakers will reconsider a bill that would criminalize ‘enhanced pat downs’ by Transportation Security Administration agents at the state’s airports, after Gov. Rick Perry placed the item on the agenda for the current special session of the legislature following intense pressure from conservatives and tea party groups.
“I am grateful that the governor heard the calls of the people demanding that lawmakers stand up for the liberties of Texans,” said Wesley Strackbein, a conservative activist and founder of’ TSA Tyranny.com’. Strackbein Saturday traveled to New Orleans to confront Perry at a book signing event and demand that the item be placed on the legislative agenda.
The bill would make it the crime of official oppression, a Class A misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in prison of a $4,000 fine, for a TSA agent to ‘touch the anus, sexual organ, buttocks, or breast of another person, even thought that person’s clothing’ for the purpose of ‘granting access to a building or a form of transportation.’
The measure passed the Texas House during the regular session but was pulled off the floor without a vote during the regular session after U.S. Attorney John Murphy circulated a letter to Senators warning that the TSA has the authority to prevent airplanes from taking off from Texas airports if the agency cannot certify that they are safe.
The bill’s chief sponsor, freshman State Representative David Simpson, says he has the support needed to pass the bill, pointing out that 121 of the 181 members of the Texas Legislature, Democrat and Republican, have signed on as co sponsors.
“This is your opportunity to show America that you have what it takes to lead this state and the nation by enforcing the Constitution of this state and the United States which both protect innocent people from unreasonable searches of their person by their own government,” Simpson said in an ‘open letter’ to Perry.
Murphy said in his letter to Senators that if this bill were passed, the ‘supremacy clause’ of the U.S. Constitution would require that the courts void it. Under Texas law, only the governor can place items on the agenda during a special called session.
The issue has taken on greater magnitude as Perry is emerging as a potential Republican Presidential candidate who is speaking to GOP groups nationwide to criticize what he sees as the ’overreach’ of the Obama Administration into the affairs of states and of private citizens.
Strackbein confronted Perry about the issue as he was signing copies of his book, entitled, “Fed Up! Our Fight to Save America from Washington.”
“Texans don’t want to see their wives and their mothers and their children groped without probable cause,” Strackbein said. “In the name of safety, we have thrown liberty out the window. It’s a fool’s bargain, and we don’t want to play the fool.”
Perry adds anti-groping bill to special session
Gov. Rick Perry announced he had added legislation that would make it illegal for TSA agents to engage in “intrusive touching” at airports security checkpoints without probable cause to the list of items for the legislature to consider during the special session.
The measure had previously failed to pass in the Texas Senate after the Justice Department wrote a scathing memo against the bill that threatened legal action against the state and the bill became enmeshed in Senate politics.
There are questions about what affect the legislation might have since airport security is a federal matter.
Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, who was accused of lobbying against the bill in May said he was “pleased” by Perry’s decision.
“I’m very pleased that Governor Perry agreed to add this legislation to his Special Session call,” Dewhurst said. “Addressing unreasonable and unlawful searches of innocent travelers by some TSA employees is an issue that affects all Texans who use air travel, and it should not wait until next Session.”
Before the Senate took up the bill initially, the Justice Department sent a letter to state advising that passage of the bill would result in immediate legal action by the federal government and that it could result in airline flights to and from Texas being delayed or cancelled.
Opponents of the bill used it as ammunition to stall the bill. Patrick blamed Dewhurst for the unexpected opposition and claimed Dewhurst was openly lobbying Senators against the bill. Dewhurst said that Sen. Kirk Watson, D-Austin, had told him there were 12 Senators against the bill, enough to block it from coming up for consideration.
The day after, Patrick slammed Dewhurst.
“Apparently, for political reasons… he came up with this elaborate political play to kill the bill without his fingerprints,” Patrick said, speaking to the drama over the anti-airport pat downs bill that failed yesterday.
When asked about how would affect his relationship with Dewhurst, he paused for a while before answering the question.
“I have to ask myself,” Patrick said, before trailing off again.
Shortly after making those comments, Patrick announced that he would explore entering the U.S. Senate race and challenge Dewhurst’s bid to replace retiring Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison.
The addition of the anti-TSA bill to the call comes just a couple of days after a Texas Republican activist confronted Perry about the issue while he was signing copies of his book ‘Fed-Up’ at the Republican Leadership Conference in New Orleans.
The Houston Chronicle’s Joe Holley reports that Perry told activist Wesley Strackbein that there simply weren’t the votes to pass the measure, an answer that Strackbein wasn’t pleased with.
When he got to the head of the line and told the governor he was disappointed about his lack of support for the anti-groping bill, Perry said “Woo!” and then went on to say there wasn’t enough time in the special session to round up support for the bill. “They don’t have the votes on either side,” the governor said, trying to move Strackbein along. “That’s what I told them. I said, ‘Bring me in a multitude in votes.’”
Strackbein was polite with the governor but displeased. “This is a flimsy excuse, as the bills considered in the special session and the length of the session itself are the sole prerogative of Perry to determine,” he said later. “His comment, in effect, was: ‘I’m powerless to do what I’ve been empowered to do.’”
Conservative activists have held at least two rallies at the Capitol, protesting the Texas’ Senate’s inability to pass the legislation.
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