DETROIT, Michigan (PNN) - June 18, 2011 - An Oakland County lawmaker is taking aim at the Transportation Security Administration and how its agents perform airport passenger security checks.
State Rep. Tom McMillin (R-Rochester Hills) wants to make it a misdemeanor for any TSA employee to “conduct an intrusive, personal search on citizens without reasonable cause.”
The legislation introduced Thursday by McMillin was referred to the state House Judiciary Committee.
McMillin referenced a recent incident at Detroit Metropolitan Airport, “where a 29-year-old special needs passenger was subject to an intrusive search.”
“The federal government is not God,” McMillin said Friday. “It doesn’t get to decide what it can do to our citizens. This is one law that needs to be in place.”
McMillin’s bill says TSA screeners “shall not intentionally touch the clothed or unclothed breasts, genitalia, buttocks or anus of that other individual except upon reasonable cause to believe that the individual may be concealing an item that is prohibited on that public property or on that mode of public transportation.”
Under McMillin’s bill, a first offense could draw a penalty of up to 93 days in jail, a $500 fine, or both.
McMillin said he patterned the bill after similar legislation in Texas. In Texas, the state House approved it but the state Senate rejected it after the U.S. Attorney’s Office wrote that such a law would conflict with federal law and criminalize searches required under federal regulations, and that TSA would likely be required to cancel flights if it couldn’t ensure the safety of passengers and crew. However, the Texas Senate may reconsider its decision to reject the bill.
The TSA was formed after the events of September 11, 2011, to “strengthen the security of the nation’s transportation systems while ensuring the freedom of movement for people and commerce,” says the TSA website.
It has certainly not accomplished those stated goals, because passnegers have anything but freedom of movement in today’s Gestapo-like airports.