GOP Rep Says He Intentionally Skirted Pelosi-Pushed Metal Detectors At Capitol In Order To Sue

P. Gardner Goldsmith | March 23, 2021
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Sometimes, it takes bold action to reveal layers of unconstitutional and immoral activity on the part of politicians, and, in this case, it’s the bold action of a politician, who is standing up for his – and others’ – right to keep and bear arms in the U.S. Capitol.

As Marisa Schultz reports for Fox News, Georgia Rep. Andrew Clyde (R) is not only challenging the $15,000 fine targeted at him for skirting the new Capitol metal detectors installed because of the Pelosi-pushed H.R. 73, he says he avoided the detectors intentionally so that he would be cited and could gain standing to sue Nancy Pelosi and challenge the Dem-passed rule in court.

’I did that so we would have legal standing to take the case to federal court, and that's exactly what I'm going to do,’ Clyde, R-Ga., told Fox News. ‘And I'm all teed up to do that. People have to stand for the Constitution. And if I have to get fined in order to give me a legal standing to do that then I'll be fined.’

As Schultz notes, Pelosi and her leftist acolytes banged the jarring and unreal drums of their “insurrection” narrative, claiming that the US government was, somehow, threatened by the disorganized rabble that was allowed to stroll into the building on January 6, and they used their fantastical narrative as a justification for their attack on the right to keep and bear arms and their attack on the Fourth Amendment as manifested in the checkpoints at the Capitol entrances.

Clyde, a Georgia gun store owner, refused to go through the new metal detectors outside the House chamber two times in violation of a new House rule put in place after the Jan. 6 insurrection to ensure that no guns and weapons are brought into the chamber. Breaking the rules cost Clyde $15,000 in fines -- $5,000 for the first infraction and $10,000 for the second. 

"’That's OK,’ Clyde said of a $15,000 setback. ‘I'm good with the taking a hit for the team. But we're going to win on this and we're going to have House Resolution 73 declared unconstitutional because it is unconstitutional.’

And this is not just a partisan matter. It’s not just political gamesmanship. Clyde clearly understands that there is nothing in the Constitution that permits House members to infringe on the right to keep and bear arms or to submit to a search in order to gain entrance to the building where they are supposed to vote on bills check the Executive Branch, and oversee the court system between the state supreme courts and the US Supreme Court. A barrier to entry such as what Pelosi and her crew have installed runs counter to the Second Amendment and infringes on the Fourth Amendment, which requires a judge to issue a specific public warrant in order for agents of any political body in the US to engage in a search of anyone.

Related: Rep. Jackson Lee’s Anti-2A Bill Would Create a Mandatory Federal Gun Registry...And Way More

Schultz notes that Louis Gohmert (R-TX) also intentionally skirted the Capitol Checkpoint Charlie and received a $5,000 fine, and that both he and Clyde plan on appealing their fines to the House Sergeant-At-Arms.

Assuming he loses his appeal in the Ethics Committee, Clyde said he's prepared to file a lawsuit against Pelosi, Capitol Police and the House Sergeant at Arms to challenge the newly installed magnetometers and to fight for Second Amendment rights at the Capitol.

Now, if only they would apply that to the TSA, which does precisely the same thing to Americans every day, has no constitutional standing or ethical prerogative to even exist in the first place, and, if removed, would allow for a private security paradigm that more closely fits the desires of users.

The idea that Nancy Pelosi and her ilk can impose these kinds of “resolutions” to restrict entrance into the Capitol should worry anyone. It opens a Pandora’s box to any kind of restriction, and allows for arbitrary and politically motivated rules that could single-out opponents. At a theoretical level, such a mindset could see one dominant party delaying other members from entering long enough to see favored legislation passed without little or no opposition.

Pelosi’s is the kind of activity one would expect to see in a banana republic.

Which is what the U.S. became a long, long time ago.

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