Free Rand Paul!
Article I, Section Six of the Constitution of the United 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.
The Transportation Safety Administration of the United States:
The TSA says Sen. Rand Paul “was not detained at any point” but “triggered an alarm during routine airport screening and refused to complete the screening process in order to resolve the issue.”
“Passengers, as in this case, who refuse to comply with security procedures are denied access to the secure gate area,” the TSA adds. “He was escorted out of the screening area by local law enforcement.”
We didn’t detain the Senator; we just kept him back a little while and made him miss his flight.
I’ve had questions about that section before. If, for example, a senator commits an actual crime while traveling from a session, are they immune from arrest until they’ve arrived back home? How does that work, exactly?
As I understand it, there are 3 exceptions:
Breach of the peace
Felony
Treason
If it comes under any of those (say a senator punches a guy out on the Capitol steps), they can get hauled off to jail.
Ah. The “and” threw me off. I collapsed the statement to just mean Treason. I’ve done that before, I’m now realizing.
So I’m sure the TSA is interpreting Paul’s action as at least Breach of Peace, or some variation thereof. What are the actual laws regarding TSA detention? If you decline further search, is this considered a potential felony?
The real problem is that the TSA has so many assigned powers that it’s difficult to argue that they’ve violated the Constitution. Until the courts determine that the TSA is itself extra-Constitutional, I don’t think we have any real ground to stand on (other than actually, you know, being right).
Not so. If a Congressman tells you he is on his way to a vote, he may not be stopped at all. He can run red lights. He can demand the aircraft be allowed to land immediately, before others. Even if he is in jail on suspicion of some crime, if he has to go vote, they have to let him. Only conviction of certain crimes prevents this. Breach of peace is not one of them. Basically, it is like diplomatic immunity.
He should have just skipped past the TSA checkpoint. “I am a U.S. Senator on my way to Congress. You may not detain me. You may not even hold me up. You may not even make me wait in line. You may not inspect me. I am going to my plane now, and there is not a damned thing you can do about it, unless you want to go to jail.”
Mea Culpa. Those items are specifically listed. They are just very narrowly interpreted. If he gets into a fist-fight with another Senator, for example, he can be detained. But if he is on his way to vote, and some reporter or protester won’t get out of his way, he can clock him and continue on.
I may be wrong, but it was my understanding that any time the police take you someplace you didn’t want to go, or prevent you from leaving a place, you are under arrest, correct?
Allegedly, they can prevent you from leaving a place without arresting you; they’ll tell you you’re being “detained.”
From what I’ve seen, you can even be cuffed and put in the back of a squad car when they “detain” you — but as long as they don’t actually take you in for booking you haven’t been arrested.