Alaska Bill Would Criminalize Invasive TSA Pat Downs

[Mr Khan]

SamuelRSmith said:

Mr Khan said:
Commerce clause, people. The only flights the TSA would have no right to regulate under these laws would be intrastate flights, which would be a sizable enough market in Alaska, but nowhere else.

Plus the interpretation would run that any airport that offers interstate flights would be subject to the process

Although the whole "strip search" thing feels like people are deliberately blowing it out of proportion to me. People who force themselves into strip-search mode are already looking for trouble (similar to protestors who deliberately provoke police to later claim police brutality), because the machines are perfectly quick, viable, and with the added bonus of not having some stranger touch you (only having them look at the CG contours of your body, so no more embarrassing than if you were wearing a bodysuit)

Although this isn't to say that i feel the TSA method is optimally effective. Real anti-terror action comes from intelligence and the fieldwork of agents. The underwear bomber from 2009 was under suspicion by the federal authorities, they simply should have been more vigilant about denying him a visa.

The Commerce clause does not give the Federal Government the power to override other parts of the constitution.

The commerce clause is completely misinterpreted, anyway. It's clearly obvious, when taken into context of the rest of the constitution, that "regulate" meant to "keep regular" rather than "do whatever the fuck you want".

Certainly that is how the commerce clause was originally intended, but given judicial precedent, that is how it would be interpreted in this case. And i would argue that there is a place for it, as it has provided the federal government with leverage against the states in instances where it was badly needed (i believe the commerce clause was useful in the civil rights act, for instance)

And the commerce clause would give the federal government power to override other parts of the constitution that pertained to commerce, like, say, the 10th Amendment, which would otherwise be the saving throw for Alaska and Texas in this case (that antiterrorism security is not a power specifically enumerated to the federal government, but if antiterror security is deemed essential for the airline business, then there you go)