For Immediate Release: November 13, 2012
The Texas legislature will take up two bills designed to protect basic civil liberties in the Lone Star State during the 2013 legislative session.
On Monday morning, Rep. David Simpson (R-Longwood) prefiled The Texas Travel Freedom Act (House Bill 80). If passed, the law would make it a criminal act to intentionally touch “the anus, breast, buttocks, or sexual organ of the other person, including touching through clothing,” without probable cause in the process of determining whether to grant someone access to a public venue or means of public transportation.
The measure also forbids removing a child younger than 18 years of age from the physical custody or control of a parent or guardian. The act would put an end to the most intrusive pat-down searches conducted by the TSA.
“If you walk up to somebody and grab their crotch out on the street, it will land you in jail. Blue uniforms and federal badges don’t grant some goon the power to sexually assault you, or at least they shouldn’t. A person doesn’t forfeit her or his personal dignity or Fourth Amendment protections with the purchase of an airline ticket,” Tenth Amendment Center communications director Mike Maharrey said.
The Texas legislature will also consider a bill that would block any attempt to indefinitely detain people in Texas under sections of the National Defense Authorization Act. Rep. Lyle Larson (R-San Antonio) prefiled House Bill 149, which declares:
It is the policy of this state to refuse to provide material support for or to participate in any way with the implementation within this state of Sections 1021 and 1022 of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2012 (Pub. L. No. 112-81). Any act to enforce or attempt to enforce those laws is in violation of this subchapter.
The legislation also provides for criminal penalties against any agent attempting to detain persons in Texas without due process under the NDAA. If passed, the law will effectively nullify federal indefinite detention in the Lone Star State.
“With four more years of the man who not only signed ‘federal kidnapping’ into law, but has vigorously defended it in court, there is absolutely zero chance for repeal in Washington D.C. Our last hope is to stand up and nullify,” Tenth Amendment Center executive director Michael Boldin said. “While Representative Larson will likely be derided by the establishment, if you live in Texas, he deserves your praise. And other state legislators need to follow suit. When enough states stand up and say, “No!” to unconstitutional federal acts, there’s not much that Obama and his gang can do about it. The Constitution and your liberty will win.”
Both acts follow the example set by Thomas Jefferson when he drafted the Kentucky Resolution of 1798 in response to the Alien and Sedition Acts and argued nullification is “the rightful remedy” when the federal government oversteps its delegated powers.
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“The several States composing, the United States of America, are not united on the principle of unlimited submission to their general government; but that, by a compact under the style and title of a Constitution for the United States, and of amendments thereto, they constituted a general government for special purposes — delegated to that government certain definite powers, reserving, each State to itself, the residuary mass of right to their own self-government; and that whensoever the general government assumes undelegated powers, its acts are unauthoritative, void, and of no force.”
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The Tenth Amendment Center exists to promote and advance a return to a proper balance of power between federal and State governments envisioned by our founders, prescribed by the Constitution and explicitly declared in the Tenth Amendment. A national think tank based in Los Angeles, the Tenth Amendment Center works to preserve and protect the principle of strictly limited government through information, education, and activism.
Will Texas be the example we need to get people off the couch? I do hope so, I also heard a report this morning that the Federal Government is considering changing the status of citizenship if you sign a secede petition, WOW how those in federal Government have given themselves authority out of thin air. It kind of reminds me of the money they create and one bad idea can only lead to another bad idea.
What we really need is examples that resolve this made up authority. We need to know in our hearts we can achieve such concepts as Liberty and this can only be done by a display of achievement.
Persistence is the tool.
Come on Texas, let us see this persistence so states will get off their butts.
Too bad we have Perry for Gov. Debra Medina would have nullified this in a flash
HB 87 is also interesting:(a) An individual may engage in an occupation not prohibited by law without being subject to a state agency rule, policy, or practice that regulates the occupation if the rule, policy, or practice is: (1) substantially burdensome; and (2) unnecessary to fulfill the purpose and intent of the statute authorizing the regulation of the occupation. (b) A state agency rule, policy, or practice may substantially burden an individual’s right to engage in an occupation only if the agency demonstrates that the rule, policy, or practice is necessary to fulfill the purpose and intent of the statute authorizing the regulation of the occupation. Sec. 94.003. DEFENSE AND RELIEF. (a) An individual may assert as a defense in any administrative or judicial proceeding to enforce a state agency rule, policy, or practice that the standard required by Section 94.002(b) has not been met. (b) An individual may bring an action for declaratory judgment or injunctive or other equitable relief for a violation of Section 94.002. (c) An individual who brings an action or asserts a defense under this section must show by a preponderance of the evidence that the state agency rule, policy, or practice substantially burdens the individual’s right to engage in an occupation not prohibited by law.
You can be sure I will be contacting my Representatives to support these bills. And if you are a TX resident, I urge you to do that same.