82R11389 BPG-D
By: Simpson H.C.R. No. 80
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.