Bill Text: TX HCR80 | 2011-2012 | 82nd Legislature | Introduced
Bill Title: Expressing strong opposition to unwarranted and unreasonable searches of air passengers by the Transportation Security Administration and urging the administration to cease such searches immediately.
Spectrum: Moderate Partisan Bill (Republican 34-5)
Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2011-04-27 - Reported favorably w/o amendment(s) [HCR80 Detail]
Download: Texas-2011-HCR80-Introduced.html
| 82R11389 BPG-D | ||
| By: Simpson | H.C.R. No. 80 | |
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| 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. | ||
