Texas PUC chairman tells about "pat down" at New Orleans

Totalitarian nightmare search in retaliation for an official's option to assert his rights.

Nullification of the TSA full body scan or "pat down" procedure is nearing passage, though it hasn't been placed on the agenda for the current special session. Here Barry Smitherman, chairman of the Texas Public Utilities Commission, tells newsmen about his recent pat down on his return from New Orleans after "opting out" of the full back scatter body scan.

Mr. Smitherman's description of an invasive search of his person and possessions offers a glimpse of an unreasonable search and seizure in the absence of reasonable suspicion or probable cause to believe there is reason to search, an affidavit of probable cause presented to a magistrate or any warrant of search so obtained - in direct violation of the 4th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.