Last spring,  we got a little taste of  just how much influence the Tenth Amendment Center can potentially wield.

In April 2011, I was poking around the Internet when I stumbled across a video made by former Miss USA Susie Castillo moments after an invasive TSA patdown in the Dallas airport.  In it, she tearfully described the humiliation and sense of violation she felt. Susie’s video enraged me, and I knew it would fire up others as well. At the time, the video only had handful of views. I quickly put together  a featured article and a national press release that went out from the TAC within hours.

Reporters and websites across the country picked up our story, and over the next few days, the video and Susie’s story quickly went viral.

It was a stroke of luck that the incident happened at the Dallas airport. At the time, the Texas legislature was considering a bill to block invasive TSA patdowns. The bill was plodding along, making little progress. But when the Castillo story broke, it pointed a bright spotlight on the TSA in Texas and motivated lawmakers to take action. The Texas House overwhelmingly passed the bill a few weeks later. The legislation probably would have become law were it not for the intervention of a federal attorney and political gaming in the Texas senate.

Over the last six years, the TAC has created a solid platform from which to proclaim constitutional truth. The Castillo affair showed us that people really are listening.

We look forward to having a lot more impact as we enter into year seven!

Mike Maharrey