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Comment by scott_s | Hacker News Reader

Who the heck gave the TSA so much power?

It's not that the TSA has that much power, it's where their power is derived from. The TSA is a federal authority, and all federal laws supercede state and local laws, per the Constitution (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supremacy_Clause).

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This sounds very similar to federal drug laws and now the new healthcare mandate. States are growing tired of being told what to do, especially when a majority of their populace disagrees with specific law. Not long ago many states passed amendments re-asserting their rights as states.

I think this would have been a great time for a large influential state to take a stand, but instead they backed down. I can still hope that CA will step up and do more than passively ignoring federal drug laws, and instead make drugs legal and throw out the DEA.

Maybe I'm just too much a cynic, but any time I see a state trying to buck a federal law, I picture a special interest who thought their money would go further purchasing favor with legislative officials at the state level rather than the federal.

Not that I disagree with you too much about this particular battle... Just that cynicism shining through my attempt to quelch it.

Actually, I think matwood brought up an excellent point about California. Their laws on marijuana are the only example I'm aware of where the state very clearly made laws that contradicted federal laws, and the federal authorities have just let it slide. If the federal government wanted to, they could make an issue out it. But they have not.

Don't the feds routinely still bust people in CA?

Well, there is also the 10th amendment, but we usually beat that down with some interstate commerce argument.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tenth_Amendment_to_the_United_S...

In order for that to be relevant, you'd have to argue that the President does not have the authority to establish the TSA.

Chief Justice John Marshall expressed it eloquently back in 1819 in his opinion of Mcculloch v. Maryland: That where this repugnancy exists, that authority which is supreme must control, not yield to that over which it is supreme.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McCulloch_v._Maryland http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/getcase.pl?court=US...

I still don't think the TSA can suspend all flights out of Texas just 'cause.

Apparently they can.

I don't mean to be glib, but I'm not aware of prohibition against it, and if they had done it, it is quite possible that either Congress or the courts could force them to renege on the decision. (The President has ultimate authority over them, so he could always order the decision reversed, but that's normal chain of command, not checks-and-balances.) But legally, it appears they do have that power.

Probably flights on public carriers. I'm guessing some sort of shift to a private charter configuration would be one way to bypass TSA security. But I'm just guessing.

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