Says Rule Violates Constitutional Law
The Aircraft Owners and Pilots
Association, along with seven New York flight schools, filed a
lawsuit in Federal court Wednesday challenging the
constitutionality of a state law requiring criminal background
checks for all flight school students.
"This law is unnecessary, discriminatory, anti-business, and
ineffective," said AOPA President Phil Boyer, "and it violates the
U.S. Constitution."
"AOPA tried to work with the New York legislature on this issue,
then gave the governor compelling reasons to veto the bill," Boyer
added. "AOPA fought a similar law in Michigan and won. We're still
looking for a mutually acceptable compromise with the state of New
York, but we'll fight this one all the way to the Supreme Court if
we have to."
AOPA says the issue is not about security, but rather whether
state law can supercede federal guidelines when it comes to
aviation security. The lawsuit states that Congress has enacted
legislation to create, "a single, uniform system of regulation for
the safety and security of aviation, to be maintained by the
federal government."
Because Congress did that, any state attempts to regulate
security would be a violation of the Supremacy Clause (Article VI,
clause 2) of the US Constitution -- and therefore preempted.
And were states permitted to enact
their own aviation security laws, it would create a patchwork of
dissimilar and conflicting laws across the nation, "frustrating the
purpose of a uniform and consistent system of safety regulation,"
according to the suit.
AOPA also claims the New York law can't achieve its stated
purpose, because the law requires the state to run a criminal
background check on any flight school applicant through the
FBI.
The FBI will not allow New York to access its criminal database
when the information is to be provided to a third party, however.
So the state would only be able to examine criminal histories
contained within its own records, "severely constraining any
effectiveness the new screening measure otherwise might have
had."
Any criminal history in another state wouldn't be revealed by
the New York check.
"Beyond the constitutional issues, the New York law stands to
hurt many small businesses in the state," said Boyer. "Faced with
the expense of a background check, many prospective student pilots
may decide to forego flight training, or worse for the New York
flight schools, do their training in a neighboring state."
In fact, that's already happened. One of the plaintiffs in the
lawsuit, East Hill Flying Club, has been unable to sign up any new
students since the law went into effect. Another plaintiff,
American Flyers, is not accepting any new students at its
Westchester County Airport facility, and will close that flight
school as soon as its current students complete training, in part
due to the requirements of the New York law.
Five other plaintiffs have also experienced -- or anticipate
experiencing -- significant economic losses because of the law.
"Bottom line, nothing in this law makes New Yorkers any safer,
but it sure will make some of them poorer," said Boyer.