This article also appears in the January 2011 edition of The Constitutionalist Today.
Led by the Obama Administration, the United States government Transportation Security Administration legally molests, pornifies, and radiates travelers in America, all in the name of safety. Is this just a foretaste of increased personal intrusions and Constitutional violations from the ever-expanding reach of government’s hand?
The Invasive Hand Was Born
In the wake of the calamity that was 9/11, the nation’s leadership was in an understandable crisis mode. In a short-sighted and crisis-driven attempt to prevent the immediate threat of terrorist hijackers from striking again, the 107th Congress and President George W. Bush hastily signed into law the TSA.
Thus was born the hand that would become the literal and physical intrusion Americans now face at airports as commercial airline travelers are randomly chosen for “enhanced” security screenings and given the choice of full-body pat-down or x-ray.
The TSA is the epitome of government bureaucracy and its typical anti-freedom fallout. Agencies such as the TSA become administrative lawmakers whose regulatory effect essentially becomes law that supersedes and erodes Constitutional law. As bureaucracies always go, the TSA is an entrenched and unaccountable agency that may pass regulations at will to achieve its stated mission.
Who Needs Terrorists When TSA Scanners Will Suffice?
In April 2010, four University of San Francisco faculty wrote a letter expressing serious concerns about the rapid implementation of x-ray airport scanners. Signing the letter were Drs. John Sedat, David Agard, Marc Shuman, and Robert Stroud, an experienced mix of imaging and cancer experts, x-ray crystallographers, and professors. (Read the letter in its entirety here).
The UCSF letter states the scanner implementation is an “urgent situation” with multiple “red flags,” including potential risks to: older travelers over age 65, a portion of women who are especially vulnerable to breast cancer, HIV and cancer patients, white blood cells near the skin, and testicular tissue /sperm mutation, just to name a few.
Further, they write that risks to children, adolescents, pregnant women, the cornea and the thymus have not been determined, concluding with, “there is good reason to believe that these scanners will increase the risk of cancer to children and other vulnerable populations.”
Who Is Really Being Protected Here?
In December 2010, an Indian Ambassador to the United States was outraged when she was “frisked” during a Mississippi airport screening, stating “this is unacceptable to India.” The Obama administration is falling over itself to apologize and “prevent it from happening in the future.”
US cabinet secretaries, top congressional leaders and an exclusive group of senior U.S. officials have been declared exempt from the screenings.
As the list of screening exemptions grows, one wonders if the best interests of America and her citizens really are the top priority here.
Is It Constitutional?
Article I of the US Constitution clearly states that all law-making powers shall be vested in Congress, which is electable and accountable to the voters. By contrast, TSA employees and agents are unelected and unaccountable regulatory lawmakers that can grant themselves power to reach as far as they deem appropriate in their mission to “protect the nation’s transportation systems to ensure freedom of movement for people and commerce.”
Read the 4th Amendment of the Constitution and determine for yourself if the government has legitimate probable cause to randomly invade our persons with these unreasonable searches:
“The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, 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.”
Contrast the 4th Amendment with the TSA’s website, which states:
“Since 2001, we have been mandated by law to appropriately screen air travelers to ensure that certain items and persons prohibited from flying don’t board commercial airliners.”
The contradiction to this writer is here: Congress wrote the bill that created the TSA. The TSA creates administrative law with expansive effects, which is cannibalistically destroying Constitutional law itself. We can see which law is prevailing as the 4th Amendment is, in action, being deemed null.
How Far Will The Hand Go?
50,000 TSA agents have the law on their side. If the current talk of unionizing them actualizes, it will further cement their place and power over traveling Americans. However, for most Americans, airline travel is still an optional method of transportation, and screenings could be avoided by using other transportation modes.
Now consider the even larger bureaucracy that will become ObamaCare, and that health care services are generally not something we consider “optional.” It is still unknown how many agents will comprise that monster.
Just as TSA adversely affects freedom for travelers, imagine how the ObamaCare bureaucracy will allot health care to Americans. Now imagine this potential nightmare scenario: if thousands of Americans become afflicted with cancer that was triggered by the TSA scanners, will the ObamaCare agents approve our related health care treatment?
Michelle Morin is Mom4Freedom, a conservative blogger, speaker, and patriot for freedom and America’s founding principles. Join her for freedom updates at here.
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