{"id":147108,"date":"2026-03-25T14:25:36","date_gmt":"2026-03-25T22:25:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2026\/03\/25\/bill-barr-learns-the-hard-way-theres-no-executive-privilege-at-airport-security\/"},"modified":"2026-03-25T14:25:36","modified_gmt":"2026-03-25T22:25:36","slug":"bill-barr-learns-the-hard-way-theres-no-executive-privilege-at-airport-security","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2026\/03\/25\/bill-barr-learns-the-hard-way-theres-no-executive-privilege-at-airport-security\/","title":{"rendered":"Bill Barr Learns The Hard Way There\u2019s No Executive Privilege At Airport Security"},"content":{"rendered":"

If there\u2019s one thing a partial government shutdown is good for, it\u2019s reminding powerful people that the systems they hollowed out eventually come for them too.<\/p>\n

And so it was at Houston\u2019s George Bush Intercontinental Airport today, where a familiar face was spotted doing something deeply unglamorous: waiting. For hours. In a TSA line that snaked across terminals, doubled back on itself, and seemed less like airport security and more like a theme park ride designed by Kafka.<\/p>\n

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HOUSTON \u2014 Among those standing in the 3-hour TSA security line at George Bush Intercontinental Airport is Former Attorney General Bill Barr. pic.twitter.com\/Nl4uw4LyzC<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Nicole Sganga (@NicoleSganga) March 25, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

Yes, that\u2019s former Attorney General Bill Barr, standing in the same 3+ hour security line as everyone else. Turns out there\u2019s no fast pass for former architects of executive overreach. Just shoes off, laptop out, and the slow march of indignity.<\/p>\n

Across the country, TSA lines have ballooned into absurdity as the partial government shutdown drags on. But the wait at IAH is particularly bad. A staggering 36% of TSA workers there reportedly called out today<\/a> \u2014 a not-at-all surprising development given that \u201cworking without pay\u201d is simply unsustainable. And the president\u2019s decision to deploy<\/a> Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers is *not* helping the problem.<\/p>\n

And let\u2019s be clear about how we got here, because there\u2019s been a predictable attempt to muddy the waters. Republicans own this mess. Full stop. They\u2019re the ones who empowered Trump\u2019s personal police force \u2014 ICE \u2014 whose abuses helped trigger the standoff that led to this shutdown. They\u2019re also the ones refusing to take up multiple Democratic proposals<\/a> that would fund TSA and alleviate exactly this kind of crisis. The dysfunction isn\u2019t some abstract inevitability; it\u2019s a policy choice.<\/p>\n

Which brings us back to Barr.<\/p>\n

Sure, on one level, there\u2019s something almost charming about the idea that former Trump officials are \u201cjust like us,\u201d stuck inching forward in a security line, silently calculating whether they\u2019ll miss their flight. But of all the people now trapped in these interminable lines, Barr is uniquely positioned to appreciate the consequences of governance by grievance and power grabs. This is, after all, a man who spent his tenure bending the Justice Department toward presidential whims and helping normalize the erosion of institutional guardrails. The rule of law didn\u2019t just fray on its own, it was actively worked over by people like him.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s like they say, sympathy is in the dictionary between shit and syphilis. <\/p>\n

\n

\"\"Kathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, host of The Jabot podcast<\/a>, and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer<\/a>. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her<\/a> with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter @Kathryn1<\/a>\u00a0or Mastodon @Kathryn1@mastodon.social.<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The post Bill Barr Learns The Hard Way There\u2019s No Executive Privilege At Airport Security<\/a> appeared first on Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n

If there\u2019s one thing a partial government shutdown is good for, it\u2019s reminding powerful people that the systems they hollowed out eventually come for them too.<\/p>\n

And so it was at Houston\u2019s George Bush Intercontinental Airport today, where a familiar face was spotted doing something deeply unglamorous: waiting. For hours. In a TSA line that snaked across terminals, doubled back on itself, and seemed less like airport security and more like a theme park ride designed by Kafka.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n

HOUSTON \u2014 Among those standing in the 3-hour TSA security line at George Bush Intercontinental Airport is Former Attorney General Bill Barr. pic.twitter.com\/Nl4uw4LyzC<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Nicole Sganga (@NicoleSganga) March 25, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

Yes, that\u2019s former Attorney General Bill Barr, standing in the same 3+ hour security line as everyone else. Turns out there\u2019s no fast pass for former architects of executive overreach. Just shoes off, laptop out, and the slow march of indignity.<\/p>\n

Across the country, TSA lines have ballooned into absurdity as the partial government shutdown drags on. But the wait at IAH is particularly bad. A staggering 36% of TSA workers there reportedly called out today<\/a> \u2014 a not-at-all surprising development given that \u201cworking without pay\u201d is simply unsustainable. And the president\u2019s decision to deploy<\/a> Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers is *not* helping the problem.<\/p>\n

And let\u2019s be clear about how we got here, because there\u2019s been a predictable attempt to muddy the waters. Republicans own this mess. Full stop. They\u2019re the ones who empowered Trump\u2019s personal police force \u2014 ICE \u2014 whose abuses helped trigger the standoff that led to this shutdown. They\u2019re also the ones refusing to take up multiple Democratic proposals<\/a> that would fund TSA and alleviate exactly this kind of crisis. The dysfunction isn\u2019t some abstract inevitability; it\u2019s a policy choice.<\/p>\n

Which brings us back to Barr.<\/p>\n

Sure, on one level, there\u2019s something almost charming about the idea that former Trump officials are \u201cjust like us,\u201d stuck inching forward in a security line, silently calculating whether they\u2019ll miss their flight. But of all the people now trapped in these interminable lines, Barr is uniquely positioned to appreciate the consequences of governance by grievance and power grabs. This is, after all, a man who spent his tenure bending the Justice Department toward presidential whims and helping normalize the erosion of institutional guardrails. The rule of law didn\u2019t just fray on its own, it was actively worked over by people like him.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s like they say, sympathy is in the dictionary between shit and syphilis. <\/p>\n

\n

\"\"Kathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, host of The Jabot podcast<\/a>, and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer<\/a>. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her<\/a> with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter @Kathryn1<\/a>\u00a0or Mastodon @Kathryn1@mastodon.social.<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The post Bill Barr Learns The Hard Way There\u2019s No Executive Privilege At Airport Security<\/a> appeared first on Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If there\u2019s one thing a partial government shutdown is good for, it\u2019s reminding powerful people that the systems they hollowed out eventually come for them too. And so it was at Houston\u2019s George Bush Intercontinental Airport today, where a familiar face was spotted doing something deeply unglamorous: waiting. For hours. In a TSA line that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":147109,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-147108","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-above_the_law"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/xira.com\/p\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/IMG_5243-1-scaled-e1623338814705-620x568-fffuIO.jpg?fit=620%2C568&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147108","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=147108"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147108\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/147109"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=147108"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=147108"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=147108"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}