Activists Praise Addition of Pat-Down Ban to Session

AUSTIN (AP/Staff) — Texas tea party activists are praising Governor Rick Perry’s addition of a pat-down bill to the special legislative session agenda. For Wesley Strackbein, the founder of the web site tsatyranny.com, the issue isn’t just pat downs at the airport. He says it’s also a way to fight back against a federal government that thinks it can do anything it wants to its citizens. According to Strackbein, “We’re confirming the rule of law and say that they must be shackled, to quote Thomas Jefferson, ‘shackled to the chains of the constitution.'”

The legislation would ban “intrusive” airport security screenings. Representative David Simpson of Longview (pictured) sponsored a bill in the House last month that would make it a criminal offense for officials conducting traveler pat-downs to touch “the anus, sexual organ, buttocks, or breast of another person” including through clothing. The measure died in the Senate after a threat from federal officials to close airports if it were approved. Simpson sent a letter to Perry on Sunday urging him to defend the “privacy, dignity, and constitutional rights of our citizens.” Lawmakers can only take up measures Perry adds to a special-session call. Perry announced the decision Monday night.