How the other 1% lives.

[Blogging from Federal Way, WA]

I found interesting the follwing article, describing the travel-plight of even the powerful. While I'm glad that members of the Federal Millionaires Club have to experience the same problems of enforcement under the terror regime as the rest of us - under laws passed by that same body, which in fact MOST members probably do NOT feel the inconvenience of - what was interesting to me was the implicit conflict between the PATRIOT Act and the congressional immunity granted in Article I, §6 of the US Constitution. I wonder at the test case of whether, under the PATRIOT Act, DHS may detain a member of Congress at an airport or impede his/her air-travel while on the way to Washington? Thoughts?

"Senator? Terrorist? A Watch List Stops Kennedy at Airport"
Rachel L. Swarns | NYT | August 20, 2004

WASHINGTON, Aug. 19 - The meeting had all the hallmarks of an ordinary Congressional hearing. There was Senator Edward M. Kennedy, Democrat of Massachusetts, discussing the problems faced by ordinary citizens mistakenly placed on terrorist watch lists. Then, to the astonishment of the crowd attending a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Thursday, Mr. Kennedy offered himself up as Exhibit A.

Between March 1 and April 6, airline agents tried to block Mr. Kennedy from boarding airplanes on five occasions because his name resembled an alias used by a suspected terrorist who had been barred from flying on airlines in the United States, his aides and government officials said. [Story continues...]

(And see a similar story on Rep. John Lewis.)