[Infowarrior] - Utah lawmaker revives TSA pat-down ban

[Richard Forno]

Utah lawmaker revives TSA pat-down ban

By Keith Laing	 - 05/27/11 11:55 AM ET

http://thehill.com/blogs/transportation-report/tsa/163693-utah-lawmaker-revives-tsa-pat-down-ban

A Utah lawmaker has filed a bill to ban controversial airport pat-downs that had been considered by Texas before lawmakers there relented. 

The Texas House of Representatives had passed a bill that would have made it illegal for Transportation Security Administration agents to perform hand searches at airport security checkpoints unless there was probable cause. But Texas senators got cold feet after the U.S. Attorney General's office threatened to cancel flights to the state if the bill passed. 

Prior to that, Utah state Rep. Carl Wimmer (R) said he filed a similar measure for next year in his state. 

"Opened a bill file today which will prohibit TSA pat downs in Utah without reasonable suspicion," Wimmer wrote on his Facebook page this week. "Texas needs us to stand with them." 

Under the legislation Texas backed away from, TSA agents would have been charged with a misdemeanor crime for patting passengers down. The penalty would have been a $4,000 fine and one year in jail.

TSA argued the proposed legislation was unconstitutional because it would violate the Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution. In a letter to Texas senators, U.S. District Attorney for Western Texas John Murphy said "TSA would likely be required to cancel any flight or a series of flights for which it could not ensure the safety of the passengers and crew."

Wimmer told a Utah newspaper that the threat constituted "absolute overbearing audacity" that "should really offend any red-blooded American." 

"It does not feel like America when you are going through a TSA checkpoint at the airport," Wimmer said in an interview with the Utah County Daily Herald.

Wimmer's legislation cannot be approved until the next Utah legislative session begins in 2012, but if it passes, it would be the first state law restricting TSA's security techniques.