Scott Garrett Moves ensure the TSA doesn’t overstep its bounds Introduces the Freedom of Travel Act, which would prohibit the TSA from conducting random searches
July 16.2014
Ridgewood NJ, Of the many revolutionary ideas that our country’s Founders included in the Constitution, the inherent rights to privacy and due process are truly unique. Our Founders witnessed firsthand the ruin and terror that a distant, unresponsive, and ultimately tyrannical government could inflict on peaceable people as individual liberties were curtailed. They could not tolerate such abuses, and neither should we today.
Our right to privacy must be diligently preserved, the more so since it can be so quickly taken away. Whether it’s the NSA’s unlimited collection of Americans’ communications, the IRS’s unequal and invasive scrutiny of politically disfavored groups, or the TSA’s expansion of unwarranted airport-style screening to our streets, we as Americans owe it to ourselves to fight this barrage of privacy infringements—and that’s not an exhaustive list.
One example that I want to bring to your attention is the TSA’s Visible Intermodal Prevention and Response (VIPR) program. VIPR teams are roving units that conduct thousands of unannounced, random sweeps of personal vehicles; bus, train, and subway stations; as well as things that have nothing to do with transportation, like football stadiums. As you can see, these teams reach far beyond the TSA’s traditional jurisdiction of airports and aviation. To ensure the TSA doesn’t overstep its bounds, I introduced H.R. 2589, the Freedom of Travel Act, which would prohibit the TSA from conducting random searches of surface transportation passengers.
The evolution of technology has also opened up many new questions about our rights in an electronic world. Recently, the Supreme Court unanimously defended our Fourth Amendment rights by holding that police are required to obtain a warrant before searching the cell phone data of an individual who has been arrested.
While I believe in maintaining our country’s anti-terrorist capabilities and supporting our brave law enforcement officials, I applaud the Supreme Court for drawing a clear line that recognizes the critical privacy interest all U.S. citizens have in their mobile devices. To further this protection, I supported an amendment to the Department of Defense appropriations that would prohibit the use of any government funds for warrantless searches of your electronic communications.
Before and during the American Revolution, homes were raided, people were arrested without warrants, personal property was confiscated and destroyed, and people understandably lived in fear of the arbitrary and invasive government. It is our duty, as Americans, to protect the civil rights that so many have fought and died for.
