First a caveat or two: I don’t know who Tom Mullen is, and I’m not remotely a Constitutional scholar. This simply interests me, YMMV. Perhaps anyone who owns a firearm should be interested even though this issue isn’t directly about that.<\/p>\n
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[UPDATE] As noted in the comments:<\/strong> There’s a special session which will re-consider the bill mentioned below. <\/a><\/p>\n As the special session of the Texas Legislature got underway Tuesday, one of the bills which gained second life was HB 1937 by State Rep. David Simpson, a bill which criminalizes intrusive pat-downs by agents with the Transportation Security Administration (TSA). The law would require TSA to produce some type of probable cause before touching areas like genitals and breasts.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n ——————————<\/p>\n This particular story opens with Texas v. TSA:<\/a><\/p>\n Texas is gearing up for a fight with the Transportation Security Administration<\/a> (TSA<\/a>) over its perverse airport screening tactics. Last week, the state House of Representatives<\/a> unanimously approved legislation holding TSA<\/a> agents accountable for their conduct under sexual harassment statutes.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Then the hasty response from the Feds:<\/a><\/p>\n The U.S. Department of Justice sent a letter to House and Texas Senate leaders Tuesday — reportedly in person — threatening a shut-down of airports if HB 1937 is passed.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n And the capitulation: <\/a><\/p>\n A threat from the federal government to shut down Texas airports or cancel flights may have killed legislation by Tea Party conservatives in the Texas Capitol to prohibit federal Transportation Security Administration agents from conducting “invasive searches.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n More below the fold for those interested.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Mr. Mullen weighs in with a cogent argumen<\/a>t, I think.<\/p>\n The near-showdown in Texas did not break any new ground in the nullification debate. The Texas House of Representatives passed a law that made the touching of genitals or breasts by TSA personnel illegal and punishable by fines and imprisonment. The federal government responded<\/a> by citing the Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution, together with a threat to cancel all air travel to and from Texas if the law were passed by the Senate and signed by the governor. The Texas Senate backed down. The crisis was averted \u2013 for the moment.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n In a way this issue was explored 150 years ago with The Civil War. If states don’t have rights, why even have states.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"