Libertarian is the New Black

Take a good look at that fellow above.

He looks like the type of choir boy my folks always hoped I would bring home, rather than morose punk girls.

How would you feel about him if he was attempting to board a domestic flight in St. Louis, carrying $4500 cash and a slug of Ron Paul stickers?

By all means, that would require further police investigation.

Thats what the TSA thought—and made a determination to detain the guy, and haul in the local PD, DEA and FBI:



Maybe you think Steve Bierfeldt is just a painfully irritating little prick who was trying to make a stupid constitutional point, while the professional TSA officers were more focused on protecting the nation.

As a person with pretty decent prosecutorial credentials, I could buy that argument—if it made any sense. They had already determined he was not armed or attempting to smuggle any explosives or liquids onto the plane. The purpose of their constitutionally permissible reasonable search had ended—whether Bierfedt was an annoying dickhead was irrelevant.

They just wanted to fish for stuff unrelated to airline security.

But I don't think that is the whole story.

This is very similar to the well-established police exception to the Fourth Amendment prohibition against unreasonable searches and seizures--the doctrine of Driving While Black.

These TSA agents thought that a Ron Paul supporter, loaded with cash, might actually be a threat to the United States. Just last month it was revealed that a Missouri Department of Public Safety report listed Ron Paul supporters and members of the Campaign for Liberty as being potential domestic terrorists who should be carefully scrutinized by law enforcement.

Even though, under pressure, the report was officially withdrawn, we all know the profile is still alive in the minds of government and law enforcement officials.

Libertarian is the new black.