| |
| |
|
|
CONCURRENT RESOLUTION
|
|
|
WHEREAS, The Transportation Security Administration has |
|
|
repeatedly abridged the fundamental rights of citizens to travel |
|
|
safe and secure in their persons by engaging in unreasonable and |
|
|
unwarranted searches of air passengers; and |
|
|
WHEREAS, At many airports, the TSA is now forcing passengers |
|
|
to submit to irradiating scans and visualizations of their bodies, |
|
|
and those passengers who refuse scanning are subjected to invasive |
|
|
pat-downs; if performed by anyone outside the TSA, such action |
|
|
would be deemed criminal in nature; and |
|
|
WHEREAS, The Fourth Amendment to the Constitution of the |
|
|
United States ensures the security of persons and property from |
|
|
unwarranted search and seizure by the civil government: "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"; and |
|
|
WHEREAS, The Texas Constitution affirms the same fundamental |
|
|
right in Section 9, Article I: "The people shall be secure in their |
|
|
persons, houses, papers and possessions, from all unreasonable |
|
|
seizures or searches, and no warrant to search any place, or to |
|
|
seize any person or thing, shall issue without describing them as |
|
|
near as may be, nor without probable cause, supported by oath or |
|
|
affirmation"; and |
|
|
WHEREAS, Section 29, Article I, of the Texas Constitution |
|
|
declares that "everything in this 'Bill of Rights' is excepted out |
|
|
of the general powers of government, and shall forever remain |
|
|
inviolate, and all laws contrary thereto, or to the following |
|
|
provisions, shall be void"; and |
|
|
WHEREAS, The Supreme Court of the United States, interpreting |
|
|
the United States Constitution in United States v. Guest, held |
|
|
that: "the right to travel is a part of the 'liberty' of which the |
|
|
citizen cannot be deprived without the due process of law under the |
|
|
Fifth Amendment. . . . The constitutional right to travel from one |
|
|
State to another, and necessarily to use the highways and other |
|
|
instrumentalities of interstate commerce in doing so, occupies a |
|
|
position fundamental to the concept of our Federal Union"; and |
|
|
WHEREAS, The graphic body scans that the Transportation |
|
|
Security Administration has implemented, as well as the intimate |
|
|
physical searches that are offered as the only alternative, are |
|
|
inappropriate, unacceptable, and unconstitutional, and these |
|
|
procedures must be stopped; now, therefore, be it |
|
|
RESOLVED, That the 82nd Legislature of the State of Texas |
|
|
hereby express its strong opposition to Transportation Security |
|
|
Administration searches that involve irradiation, scanning, |
|
|
visualization, or groping and its position that such searches are a |
|
|
violation of the Bill of Rights of both the United States |
|
|
Constitution and the Texas Constitution and the law authorizing |
|
|
these searches should be considered void and as having no force of |
|
|
law; and, be it further |
|
|
RESOLVED, That the 82nd Texas Legislature hereby urge the |
|
|
Transportation Security Administration to immediately cease |
|
|
unwarranted and invasive searches at all security checkpoints, |
|
|
whether in airports or otherwise, that irradiate, scan, visualize, |
|
|
and/or grope the bodies of citizens, who possess a fundamental |
|
|
right to travel and have been guaranteed the same by their civil |
|
|
covenants; and, be it further |
|
|
RESOLVED, That the legislature hereby urge the governor of |
|
|
Texas to actively support efforts, legislative and otherwise, to |
|
|
ensure that the citizens of Texas retain their fundamental right to |
|
|
travel secure in their persons and property and free from |
|
|
unwarranted, unreasonable searches, especially those searches |
|
|
conducted by agents of the federal government; and, be it further |
|
|
RESOLVED, That the Texas secretary of state forward official |
|
|
copies of this resolution to the president of the United States, to |
|
|
the president of the Senate and the speaker of the House of |
|
|
Representatives of the United States Congress, to the administrator |
|
|
of the Transportation Security Administration, and to all the |
|
|
members of the Texas delegation to Congress with the request that |
|
|
this resolution be entered in the Congressional Record as a |
|
|
memorial to the Congress of the United States of America. |