At least one state's lawmakers are fed up with airport passenger screening and are proposing a law making the touching or viewing with a technological device of a person’s breasts or genitals by a government security agent without probable cause a sexual assault. Under the law, a government worker conducting such a search without probable cause risks being put on the state's Sexual Offender Registry for life.
New Hampshire state representative George Lambert sponsors the new law, arguing that "[w]e understand searching for weapons and searching for explosives, [but] [w]hen we have citizens who are strip-searched and have no ability to leave under color of law, at what point have we gone too far? We need to protect our citizens from invasion that exceeds the limitation of the TSA security procedure."
Another lawmaker, Representative Andrew Manuse (R-Derry), said 145 people signed a Republican Liberty Caucus petition supporting the bill. "Maybe this will tell them at TSA that New Hampshire means business. We don’t want this type of thing to go on in our state. We’re saying stop, don’t do it any more. With these procedures … I think the terrorists are winning. They are destroying our country, and we are saying what liberties are we defending?"
According to reports, "no state has passed such a law, though there has been unrest in Congress about the unauthorized release of TSA images on the Internet. The U.S. Senate last fall approved making it a federal crime to share TSA images with anyone."
The proposed New Hampshire law reads, in part:
AN ACT making the touching or viewing with a technological device of a person’s breasts or genitals by a government security agent without probable cause a sexual assault.
Be it Enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives
in General Court convened:
New Subparagraph; Sexual Assault; Touching or Viewing by Government Security Agent. Amend RSA 632-A:4, I by inserting after subparagraph (c) the following new subparagraph:
(d) When the person, acting in his or her role as a security agent of the federal, state, or local government, touches the genitals or breasts of any other person or touches or views with any technological device the genitals or breasts of any other person without probable cause for such touching or viewing. For purposes of this subparagraph, the following shall not constitute probable cause: discussing or possessing a copy of the Constitution, discussing the security apparatus of an airport, being on the premises of an airport, possessing an airplane ticket or any other type of ticket for access to mass transportation, driving a motor vehicle on a public way, or ownership of firearms.
Registration of Criminal Offenders; Definitions; Sexual Offense. Amend RSA 651-B:1, V(a) to read as follows:
(a) Capital murder, RSA 630:1, I(e); first degree murder, RSA 630:1-a, I(b)(1); aggravated felonious sexual assault, RSA 632-A:2; felonious sexual assault, 632-A:3; sexual assault, 632-A:4, I(a), RSA 632-A:4, I(d), or RSA 632-A:4, III; violation of privacy, RSA 644:9, I(a) or RSA 644:9, III-a; or a second or subsequent offense within a 5-year period for indecent exposure and lewdness, RSA 645:1, I.
Registration of Criminal Offenders; Definitions; Offense Against a Child. Amend RSA 651-B:1, VII(a) to read as follows:
(a) Any of the following offenses, where the victim was under the age of 18 at the time of the offense: capital murder, RSA 630:1, I(e); first degree murder, RSA 630:1-a, 1(b)(1); aggravated felonious sexual assault, RSA 632-A:2; felonious sexual assault, RSA 632-A:3; sexual assault, RSA 632-A:4, I(a), RSA 632-A:4, I(d), or RSA 632-A:4, III; kidnapping, RSA 633:1; criminal restraint, RSA 633:2; false imprisonment, RSA 633:3; incest, RSA 639:2; violation of privacy, RSA 644:9, I(a) or RSA 644:9, III-a; a second or subsequent offense within a 5-year period for indecent exposure and lewdness, RSA 645:1, I; indecent exposure and lewdness, RSA 645:1, II and RSA 645:1, III; or prostitution, RSA 645:2.
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