Magdalen
Veteran Member
I believe the vote on this bill takes place today.
magdalen
Fair Use for Discussion
Governor Places Item on Special Session Agenda
by Jim Forsyth, Monday 20 June 2011
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, 1200 WOAI news has learned.
“I am grateful that the governor heard the calls of the people demanding that lawmakers stand up for the liberties of Texans,” Wesley Strackbein, a conservative activist and founder of' TSA Tyranny.com' told 1200 WOAI news. 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.”
Read more: http://radio.woai.com/cc-common/mainheadlines3.html?feed=119078&article=8731718#ixzz1QDPsuHjw
magdalen
Fair Use for Discussion
Governor Places Item on Special Session Agenda
by Jim Forsyth, Monday 20 June 2011
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, 1200 WOAI news has learned.
“I am grateful that the governor heard the calls of the people demanding that lawmakers stand up for the liberties of Texans,” Wesley Strackbein, a conservative activist and founder of' TSA Tyranny.com' told 1200 WOAI news. 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.”
Read more: http://radio.woai.com/cc-common/mainheadlines3.html?feed=119078&article=8731718#ixzz1QDPsuHjw
