The State of Texas has a bill (House Bill 1937) which is gaining momentum, and is discussed in this post on Flyertalk, which would make touching someone’s private area, even atop clothing a felony.
This may be gaining momentum in response to the recent claim by Miss USA that TSA sexually assaulted her at the Dallas airport.
If the bill passes and becomes law, the only way a TSA screener can perform the full groping, touching of my junk, patdown, is to obtain written consent from the traveler.
I’m in favor of this law passing, are you?
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The Weekly Flyer writes about travel from a business traveler perspective. He travels the world every week accumulating points and miles along the way.
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This may or may not be the best route, I’m not sure. No matter what, those THUGS at TSA need to be shut down. TSA really screwed up with their hiring standards!! Poorly educated slobs, given a white shirt and a badge, simple instructions that they cannot follow – or even understand – and license to screw up every flyer’s day. Those idiots do NOT know what they are doing, but they sure have fun doing it! And… have they EVER caught anyone who was a genuine threat to a passener aircraft? I don’t think so! Not even once. Perverts and thugs!
Would this only be able to apply to in-state flights? I’m sure the federal government could use the interstate commerce clause and the powers to regulate foreign trade given to them in the Constitution to defend this. (Despite the fact that the regulations are passed by some shadowy organization, not Congress in general)
At any rate anything that disrupts what they now call “standard” patdowns where someone will slide their hands up my leg until they hit “resistance” (what could that be?) is a good thing in my book.
I like the idea of this legislation but in reality I’m afraid its just going to end up inconveniencing fliers who will be forced to sign a “consent form” before they get molested.
It’s irrelevant; the separation of powers prohibits state governments from interferring with the operation of the federal government. For example, federal employees are exempt from local curfew and weather driving restrictings when traveling between work and home.