Legislators in the state of Texas are seeking to protect the Fourth Amendment by utilizing the Tenth Amendment.
Angered by the violation of civil liberties at the airport at the metaphorical, and physical, hands of the Transportation Security Administration, members of the Texas Legislature have introduced the following bills:
HB 1937: Bans offensive touching of persons seeking access to public buildings and transportation and penalizes those who engage in such.
HB 1938: Outlaws the use of the naked-body scanners at Texas airports, and subjects those in violation to this law to penalty.
Both bills were introduced on March 1 and are currently awaiting further action.
Ken Hoover of The John Birch Society explains the need for the above measures:
We all are aware of how the so-called "war on terror" has been used to chip away at our liberties. The invasive groping at airports, train stations, and in other public places plus the "whole body scanners" at airports are good examples of what I’m talking about. It would appear that the main casualty of the "War on Terror" has been the Fourth Amendment "right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, persons, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures… ." These intrusions need to be stopped.
Touting the two bills as “very direct examples of nullification,” Hoover indicates that much of the credit for these two articles of legislation should be attributed to Representative David Simpson, who “spearheaded” the bills.
Likewise, a number of Texas state representatives have “joint-authored” the measures.
The efforts of the Texas legislators are exemplary of a relatively new trend. In recent years, states have been finding their voices once again in a climate wherein the federal government has grown into a leviathan. For example, the state of Arizona found authority in the Tenth Amendment to pass legislation to secure its southern border, while others such as New Hampshire and Oklahoma have used the Tenth Amendment to justify the nullification of unconstitutional laws such as that which implements ObamaCare.
It seems that Texas may lose its "lone" status, as it is in the company of other states that have rediscovered their authority.
