First, I think it’s important to say that we need airport security. We are facing an undeniable threat from people who truly want to kill us. But in fighting that threat, I want to make sure that we are not killing our liberty, which is the very thing we as a nation are attempting to protect. Our Constitution sets up some basic principles in the Fourth Amendment on how we can be searched. The Federal Court has held that administrative searches without warrants may be conducted in very limited circumstances. Most searches require warrants and probable cause. But, it is clear from the Fourth Amendment that all searches must be “reasonable.” To be reasonable, our laws and practices have long held that there must be some articulable suspicion before law enforcement can take their investigation to the next step. If you think about it, I think you would agree that the TSA searches that are being conducted are not reasonable.
Rep. George Lambert, R-Litchfield, and I decided to sponsor this bill (HB 628) because we have been watching (and experiencing) the post-911 anti-terrorism apparatus get out of hand. We have seen horror stories and personally listened to stories from people we know that tell of TSA agents putting their hands underneath people’s underwear–or worse; we have heard about body cavity searches conducted without any cause. We have heard about the potential risks of cancer from the backscatter technology and also how some agents have used the backscatter images as pornography. We have read about how the TSA is expanding its airport security into our train stations, bus stations and onto our highways. In the name of fighting terrorism, we have forgotten about our liberties and basic human decency.
Remember, Ben Franklin said, “Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” I would argue that in our current system, we have neither liberty nor safety.” When a government official can conduct a body cavity search for no other reason than “a person bought an airplane ticket,” it is clear that we do not have liberty. Take a moment to personalize that passenger getting a body cavity search–say it is your wife, your daughter or your mother–and ask yourself, “Do we have safety?” I would argue that we do not. The trauma that such a search could cause to a woman, particularly one who has already experienced a sexual assault, is extreme. A TSA screening could damage a person for life.
We are sponsoring this bill to call TSA screening of this nature for what it is: sexual assault. It is true, we as the state of New Hampshire don’t have the liberty to tell the TSA how to do its job at our airports. That is a federal issue. However, we can as a state tell the TSA what it cannot do, and we can enforce penalties when agents violate our state laws. Remember, the TSA is not enforcing federal law. It is only enforcing an unconstitutional agency policy. We can tell them to stop. New Hampshire is our jurisdiction, not theirs. In reality, there is nothing the TSA can do to stop us from putting one of their agents’ names on our sex offender registry. And thus, we chose this approach because it is the only thing we can do to send the message to Washington that the abuses of the TSA have got to stop, and they have to stop now.
While we don’t have the power as a state to suggest changes to the TSA screening process, I can communicate that now and hope that they listen. I think before any kind of enhanced screening is conducted, the TSA must conduct behavioral profiling and should consider using some bomb sniffing dogs as well. If these methods result in some level of articulable suspicion, I think the next step is to use interrogation methods to further determine the level of threat. Only if the interrogation results in some level of reasonable suspicion, then perhaps a backscatter screening or pat down is in order. And only if after those procedures the agent has developed probable cause for a warrant and an arrest should he or she ever resort to something like a cavity search. This process is reasonable, the current process is not. We are hoping that our efforts affect this change and we invite the other 49 states to join us in this effort to hold our federal government accountable.
Read the media reports of this bill. Here are some YouTube videos chronicling TSA abuse.
{ 10 comments… read them below or add one }
You say, “TSA has discussed (to our knowledge) plans to expand its airport security into our train stations, bus stations and onto our highways.”
I applaud you for your effort, but I have to ask … have you have not been paying full attention to what is going on in your country? There are already many “internal checkpoints” set up all over the US, where innocent people, in their own vehicles, are being harassed by DHS. There are already several portable backscatter machines set up everywhere to x-ray privately-owned vehicles, including its passengers. Mobile backscatter machines are being used at border crossings … again to x-ray vehicles, including its passengers. These mobile backscatter machines are calibrated so high that they can cut through metal from a distance of 500 metres. Doesn’t the thought of being x-rayed by something so powerful disturb you? It disturbs me! Not only are backscatter machines being used, but innocent people are being strip and cavity searched for trying to visit your country. That’s despicable!
As a Canadian citizen, I have spent about 80% of my vacation time on US soil, therefore about 80% of my vacation dollars have been spent on US soil. Because of the invasive and humiliating tactics now being used for flights to the US, and at border crossings, I will never again set foot on US soil. Nor will any of my family and friends, for you see, I have spread the word far and wide to people I know all over the world. I have been forwarding all of these horror stories to at least 500 people. Each of those 500 have spread the word to their family and friends.
I know that on each of my visits to the US, I have spent an average of $3,000, and I can’t count the number of times I’ve been there, but let’s play with some numbers, just for fun. Let’s say that I’ve visited the US even just 100 times (it’s actually much, much higher than that), and spent $3,000 each visit. That’s a total of $300,000. Now, multiply that $300,000 by the 500 people that I’ve notified and the new total is $1,500,000. Now multiply that number again by the number of people that my family and friends have notified (let’s say even just 10 each) and the new total becomes $150,000,000. You can see where this is going. I can’t see why, when your economy is in such trouble already, that your government sees fit to abuse its visitors … people who simply wish to see the great USA … Land of the Free.
I appreciate your comment and will edit my post accordingly. I was trying to be careful with my words, but you are right that it is time to speak boldly about this issue. I will edit the article accordingly.
Dear Andrew,
Thank-you very much for even considering the voices of visitors to your country. It’s very refreshing to know that at least some members of your government realise just how important foreign tourism is to your economy. Unfortunately most members have blocked all IP addresses that don’t originate within the US, so there is no way for us to convey our concerns. If we can’t all stand together to defeat these “security” measures, then the US truly will lose an awful lot.
Dear Andrew,
Thank you for your efforts. I am pleased to see legislators are finally waking up to what people are telling them. They are far behind in knowledge. If you check statistics you will see that the last bomb placed on an aircraft was in 1962 and problems have been decining since the 10980′s. Our own government statistics claim there are between 100 to 160 Al Queda and most are in Afghanistan facing our excellent army and marines. Most of the incidents have been strngely seen to involve the FBI. DHS costs Americans a huge amount of money and it is mostly to violate our Constitutional rights.
Freedom of movement and liberty is a god given right at birth. It was first put into law in the Magna Carta in 1279 and continues with our Bill of Rights Amendment 5. Liberty means free movement unimpeded and unhindered. There is NO balancing of rights, they arethe People’s and the government has no power to limit them except as explicitly stated in the Constitution. The rules under the 4th amendment apply as well. Our regulatory government is operating well beyond Constitutional authority and needs to be reeled back in.
Where are the terrorists this nonsense is supposed to combat. Meanwhile, if the whole business was about safety there would be more concern for the hundreds of thousands killed at rail crossings and on highways, but it is not. It is about making money in the shallowest of games DC can play. There is no bigger threat today to aviation than there ever was. We need to go back to unimpeded travel and sanity and put the panic screaming machine peddlars out of work. Department of Homeland Security is a far bigger threat to my freedom than any murderer in Afghanistan ever will or can be. Lets fix this disgrace.
I applaud what you are doing too. I do have one point of contention with your article. I think you are totally off on the 4th amendment. You say warrantless searches can be done as long as they are “reasonable”. That is not what the framers meant. This is what it says “The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated,…” Notice the comma? Then it goes on to say how a search can be done; “… and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.”
To say that “reasonable” searches can be done without a warrant means that only unreasonable searches need a warrant. Do you really think the framers wanted the government to do unreasonable searches?
I think adding a warrant to a search is what makes it reasonable. It requires probable cause and citing the places to be searched or the items to be seized. I personally would prefer all searches required a warrant, but our lovely Supreme Court has ruled otherwise, granting the use of “administrative warrants” for some cases. Does this work.
Yes I know what they ruled, doesn’t make them anymore right on that, than they were on the Dredd-Scott decision. Adding a warrant to an unreasonable search can not make it reasonable, it just makes it legal “under the color of law”.
Right On Andrew, This TSA pat down, junk touching stuff has come down upon us from on high without enough concern (or seemingly any concern) for a specific protocol or graduated steps (that we can know about) to protect our rights to be secure in our person. I suspect it is so they say that they are being “fair” and “random” but that kind of PC thinking can also blind them to what can really be done to access a threat .
Dear Representative Manuse,
Thank you so much for calling these degrading and unacceptable searches what they are – sexual assaults. My body is my own. I decide with whom to engage in sexual contact, and I decide who views my naked body. That’s why I won’t fly. I flew 50 flights last year, and I have flown zero since this ritual sexual humiliation began in November. My refusal to fly is compromising my career and my relationships, but I insist on my safety. The greatest threat to my safety at the airport is the TSA. The real terrorists are the TSA, who have me terrorized to a point that I can’t travel freely in my own country for fear the government will forcibly abuse my body.
Thank you for your heroic and patriotic action in co-sponsoring this bill. I support you 100%.
Sincerely,
Sommer Gentry
Update on the Stop the TSA bill:
HB 628 was retained by the N.H. House Committee on Criminal Justice. They will be using the next several months to come up with a solution that will work for the State of New Hampshire.
It is my understanding that the members of the committee, in making their decision to retain the bill, decided that a criminal penalty for government agents doing their jobs was not only impossible to enforce but also something they weren’t willing to enact. While I fully disagree with the committee’s decision on this point, because I believe that criminal activity should be punished regardless of whether it is the result of direct orders, it will be important to recognize the committee’s position for what it is and work on a strategy for stopping the TSA that will work and will also be something the committee is willing to enact.
It is important to note that the committee voted to retain the bill, not to kill it. Thus, we will have the summer leading up to January to work on a solution that the committee will be interested in passing on to the House and the Senate. At this point, the bill is fully in the committee’s hands, but Rep. Lambert and I will still be able to influence the process by introducing amendments to the bill as written that the committee may be more comfortable with. This will be a lot of work, and any help members of the public could provide in coming up with some potential solutions would be great.
Unfortunately, it has come to my attention that federal agents are immune from prosecution by the states. This is one of the most serious problems we are facing in the enactment of HB 628. This is a problem that must be solved at the federal level.
Rep. Ron Paul, a Congressman from Texas, has introduced HR 6416, the American Traveler Dignity Act of 2010, which reads essentially as follows:
“No law of the United States shall be construed to confer any immunity for a Federal employee or agency or any individual or entity that receives Federal funds, who subjects an individual to any physical contact (including contact with any clothing the individual is wearing), x-rays, or millimeter waves, or aids in the creation of or views a representation of any part of a individual’s body covered by clothing as a condition for such individual to be in an airport or to fly in an aircraft. The preceding sentence shall apply even if the individual or the individual’s parent, guardian, or any other individual gives consent.”
If this law passes, the immunity problem that I discussed above would be solved. At that point, HB 628, the bill Rep. Lambert and I sponsored, would be the right solution for New Hampshire. Until Rep. Paul’s bill passes, however, it is again, unenforceable. I would love to come up with a solution that works.
In the meantime, the New Hampshire House last week passed HCR 9, a resolution urging Congress to support H.R. 6416 or similar legislation relative to airport security. This first-step approach to the problem will at least let our Congressional Delegation from New Hampshire know that the New Hampshire Legislature has a problem with what the TSA is currently doing and it will ask Reps. Guinta and Bass as well as Sens. Ayotte and Shaheen to support Rep. Paul’s legislation. The bill sponsored by Rep. Lambert and I can now be used as a backup approach, and we have several months to work on it. We hope to use this time to come up with a creative, effective and enforceable solution to this problem, and we hope to have your support and assistance during this time.
Also, Rep. Lambert and I will be developing a Web site to serve as a national repository for solutions to this problem. You can help by starting to brainstorm what some of these solutions might be and also be compiling videos and news articles that we could add to the site to showcase this problem. Please feel free to post those here.
I really want to do everything I can to stop this problem. Right now, we’re in the reorganization phase and will be working toward a solution over the next several months. We appreciate all of your support and assistance in the meantime.