I have previously written about how the Transportation Security Agency (TSA) set out to create a crime never approved by Congress: the crime of making a joke in an airport about security issues. The TSA has long appeared to chafe at the notion of an agency dependent on Congress or the public for its authority. That appears the message being sent to John E. Brennan. You may recall Brennan from a story last year when he stripped in the Portland International Airport in protest of increasing invasive TSA security measures. He was cleared by a judge who found his stripping was a form of protest. However, the TSA was clearly miffed by decision of the judge, so Brennan was pulled into the administrative abyss by TSA with an agency charge. It appears that, if the law will not punish a citizen, TSA will.
Agency fines and charges place citizens into a system that is heavily weighted in favor of the agency and denies basic due process protections found in courts. After the judge threw out the charge against Brennan, 50, the TSA got one of its administrative judges to fine him $1,000 for violating a federal rule stating passengers may not “interfere with, assault, threaten, or intimidate” TSA screeners. You may ask how stripping is an act of interference or assault or threat or intimidation. It does not matter. Once in the administrative process, the agency gets a huge degree of deference in determining violations with judges who are dependent on the agency for the very jurisdiction of their “court.”
What is equally troubling is the news blackout imposed by TSA over the case. Administrative judge George Jordan was asked to make an exception and allow cameras into the courtroom but he denied the request. The message seemed to be that Brennan’s move was in the hands of TSA and neither a court nor public opinion would save him now. TSA has refused to even answer questions on the case.
We can debate the ruling of the court in finding no criminal conduct, but the subsequent effort to fashion a new crime from the TSA regulations should be a matter of concern for all citizens. The TSA is taking an act found by a court to be an act of protest and re-defining it as an act of intimidation or threat to the TSA. The case should also focus attention at the ever-expanding system of administrative courts that are pulling citizens into a bureaucratic vortex where they face unfair procedures and treatment.
By the way, after the incident, Brennan was fired from his job as a web development manager at Seagate Technology.
Source: Oregon
what we ought to start doing is bringing a tube of KY and give it and $10 bucks to the agent and say how about a hand-job while your at it. Turn these b*st8rds into sexual objects.
If half a dozen people gave me a tube of KY and a $10 bill and told me to give them a hand job, I think I would quit my job in disgust.
I dont know if the Mahatma would approve but I think Marilyn Chambers might.
Actually I guess you cant give them $10 bucks or it would be prostitution but I think you could give them the KY.
Lawyers?
How about this man going into an appeal of the administrative hearing and claim he was denied his property (money) without due process of law? But if civil drug seizure hearings are to be any lesson from the past it could get really scary.
It is time to abolish the TSA and the DHS
What does TSA stand for? Too Self Absorbed? Thuggish Smug and Arrogant? Tight Sphinctered A*******?
ok for those who might be thinking what does seagate have to do with this. they fired this man.. for standing up for rights and freedoms and i refuse to support any company in the pocket of the corporation formerly known as the government
how i wish i had been able to read this article before buying seagate sata drives not 1 but 3.. This is horrendous and only going to get worse. unless the people are willing to stand up and fight as one.. but those who believe they are in charge apparently think they have all bases covered.. if only the people would be willing to give up the toys which we’re given to them to keep them distracted from finding out about atrocities like this along with the case that i posted on another board concerning Sylvia stolz
I have family in NM, TX, NY, PA, FL, NC. I have visit all these states in the past 5 years by auto. I refuse to be groped.
I’m tempted to refer to this as a “kangaroo court,” but seeing as how the all monkey business is being run by TSA apes and baboons, it just doesn’t seem to fit, does it?
tsa has no legal authority!!! They just THINK they do!!!
Brennan should also sue his employer for firing him on a false charge for clearly using his first amendment rights and he had already been cleared by a court. This was firing based on a lie!!!
Yes, what they did is double jeopardy and is illegal. This man should sue the tsa for what they did, and he would win. obviously the tsa people aren’t very highly educated and don’t know anything about common law!!!
If you travel a thousand miles or less one way and two thousand round trip, then you will be using around sixty five gallons of gas for a car trip. That will be cheaper than flying and having to go through the Russian gestapo. If it is farther then consider not going.
If I remember correctly a woman pulled the same stunt at the ticket counter at Denver International.
As I recall, she was released without charges.
One way to stop these TSA accostings is for the public to uniformly refuse to fly until these abuses come to an end. The airlines will then put a lot of pressure on the federal gov’t (which will be losing a lot of tax money and more importantly, to politicians,
bribescampaign contributions.)Maybe men should wear short skirts onto planes with no underwear. Just do a spin to show that you are unarmed. Dont aim the Thing at them as you spin and you will not get prosecuted for assault. Assault and battery if the thing hits them going by during the spin. Have an MD do this so he can be a Spin Doctor.
Sounds like a great idea. That would allow something to be between the skin and the seat. That is all that is need really. It would be people looking like they all had a kilt on. They come in all sorts of colors.
The TSA is attempting to short-circuit a potential malicious prosecution suit.
I read somewhere of a fellow who prefers to travel wearing a utility kilt. For those who don’t know, a utility kilt is usually made of something like khaki, and has cargo pockets so no sporran is needed to carry stuff.
He also prefers to go “regimental.” Said the TSA guy ran his hand up the inside of his leg, discovering what going regimental meant. When the TSA man examined the inside the other leg, he did not go quite so high. Our traveler enjoyed the examiner’s embarrassment.
I actually had a TSA touch my testicles and ask me : “do you have anything in your underwear?” My response “I hope so”. He actually touched them again–just to be sure. I hear about these intrusions happening all the time (especially to women). I don’t blame the guy for “losing it”.
I would start laughing.
So, if you loose in real court just make your own. Now TSA after being but hurt has made a system that bypasses all laws. They are not the judge, jury, executioner, and law maker. I don’t get it. I thought “The Sexual Assault” likes nude images of people. I guess only when it is not volunteered. I bet if it was a 4 year old girl they (Terrorizing Sexual Assault TSA) wouldn’t mind.