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Against Regimentation

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On Monday, Senator Rand Paul got caught in a contretemps with the TSA. He was not in transit to or from his work in Congress, so he couldn’t enlist constitutional protection from being detained.

And detained he was.

Well, the TSA insists that he was not “at any point detained,” but what he says is this:

I was detained by the Transportation Security Administration … for not agreeing to a patdown after an irregularity was found in my full body scan. Despite removing my belt, glasses, wallet and shoes, the scanner and TSA also wanted my dignity. I refused.

I showed them the potentially offending part of my body, my leg. They were not interested. They wanted to touch me and to pat me down. I requested to be rescanned. They refused and detained me in a 10-​foot-​by-​10-​foot area reserved for potential terrorists.

Both Senator Paul and his father, Congressman Ron Paul, have criticized the TSA. They echo those 19th century classical liberals who had a word for the kind of treatment that modern security-​obsessed Rand Paul makes a statementgovernments inflict upon a (too willing) populace: “regimentation.” What’s more regimenting than being forced to wait in lines, holding shoes in hand, emptying the contents of pockets into institutional-​gray trays, submitting to a variety of scans and gropes?

There have got to be better ways of securing big ol’ jet airliners. Why not apply greater legal liability to airlines for safety, and let them figure out more customer-​friendly methods of keeping terrorists out of cockpits?

Any government security effort ought to focus on spotting and stopping terrorists … without sacrificing everyone’s freedom and dignity.

It’s Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

17 replies on “Against Regimentation”

Another word or two might be “unconstitutional search”. Having the government in the loop is a cover for the liability that the airline would have to shoulder were they responsible for their own security. But they would not be violating the Constitution by requiring searches. The government clearly is and the elected politicians who instigated it have violated their oath of office.
Point of order- is it loyalty to the Contitution to lie to an agency whose very existance is unconstitutional?

Maybe now that a member of Congress has been subjected to what most ordinary Americans are forced to endure, something will be done. The TSA was between a rock and a hard place. They face criticism no matter what they do. If they had not detained Senator Paul, they would have been accused of showing favoritism.
Your idea of letting the airlines be responsible for security has merit but the airlines also have an out: the FAA regulates them. They would face lawsuits for “profiling” terrorists and bypassing those who didn’t look suspicious.
Besides, I thought the cockpit doors were already secured. Now that that option is limited, terrorists will find other ways to bring down airplanes.
Next, we’ll be forbidden to bring even ‘travel-​size’ toiletries on board because someone will figure out a way to put explosives in a miniature toothpaste tube.
I’d rather drive two days to my destination than take a plane. Believe it or not, it’s now more convenient than flying. It’s also more relaxing. I don’t have to worry about strangers going through my luggage. Unless I have to cross an ocean or otherwise leave the country, there’s no reason to fly for non-​business travel. I used to fly two to three times a year. No longer.

Let’s face it. TSA agents are basically bullys dressed up in blue uniforms. They get their kicks frisking old ladies and little girls. I’m tired of explaining that my jeans are reinforced with metal rivets and that my watch is made of metal.

Why didn’t Senator Paul demand to see the warrant before submitting to the initial indignity of the body-​scan search? Or the follow-​up indigity of removing articles of clothing? Why does he draw the line only at being touched?

One could argue that he gave up his Fourth Amendment rights when he first submitted to the search — something I wish he hadn’t done!

The TSA shows that Republicans are for bigger and more government. How much better, simpler (and at no cost to taxpayers) it would have been had government just let airlines screen passengers as they believed best (after all they don’t want terrorists hijacking or blowing up their planes). 

I think the statist politicians didn’t want private firms to have the ability to discriminate (like a racist white hotel owner turning away blacks, or a black restaurant owner turning away the KKK, or a Jewish store owner turning away Nazis). That is, they don’t want us to have the right to choose who we associate with or sell/​provide services to, for whatever reason. So instead Bush created the monstrosity known as T&A.

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