Apparently, Atlas wouldn’t have shrugged if the TSA said, “Can you please raise your arms?” Matthew Boyle reports:
Kentucky Republican Sen. Rand Paul’s press secretary Moira Bagley tweeted on Monday that Transportation Security Administration officials were detaining her boss in Nashville, Tenn.
“Just got a call from @senrandpaul,” Bagley tweeted at about 10 a.m. on Monday. “He’s currently being detained by TSA in Nashville…”
Sen. Rand Paul’s chief of staff Doug Stafford told The Daily Caller the Senator “was detained by the TSA after their scanner had an ‘anomaly’ on the first scan.”
“He offered to go through again,” Stafford said in an email. “The TSA said he could only have a full body pat down. He would not consent to it. He offered to go through the scanner again. The situation is ongoing.”
Nothing on this at the TSA blog yet, although it does explain the protocol:
Pat-downs are primarily used to resolve alarms that occur at a walk-through metal detector, if an anomaly is detected during screening with advanced imaging technology (AIT), or during random screening. If one of those situations arises, you will be given a pat-down before you’re able to continue on to your flight.
So it sounds like he wasn’t treated any differently than anybody else. Wonder what sort of “anomaly” it was? When they tell you remove everything from your pockets, that includes Krugerrands.
P.S. On the other hand, it’s true that the TSA isn’t showing much common sense. But if they had any common sense, they wouldn’t be government bureaucrats, would they?
P.P.S. And also on that same other hand… Article I, Section 6 of the United States Constitution states:
The Senators and Representatives shall receive a Compensation for their Services, to be ascertained by Law, and paid out of the Treasury of the United States. They shall in all Cases, except Treason, Felony and Breach of the Peace, be privileged from Arrest during their Attendance at the Session of their respective Houses, and in going to and returning from the same; and for any Speech or Debate in either House, they shall not be questioned in any other Place.
Did Rand Paul commit treason, felony, or breach of the peace? If not, did the TSA violate the Constitution by keeping him from going to work? Of course, a lot of people think the TSA violates the Constitution by its very existence…
P.P.P.S. Ron Paul responds.
P.P.P.P.S. The TSA vs. the U.S. Constitution. Guess which side the White House lands on?