EDITORIAL – Bad judgement on state justice’s part

Pennsylvania Supreme Court Justice Thomas G. Saylor Jr. was detained for about an hour Friday… Pennsylvania Supreme Court Justice Thomas G. Saylor Jr. was detained for about an hour Friday at Harrisburg International Airport for trying to board an airplane with a small pocketknife.

When Saylor first attempted to pass through a security checkpoint, screeners found a small, blue Swiss-Army-style knife attached to his key chain. According to the police report, he was told the item could not be carried onto a plane and that he needed to place the knife into checked luggage or make other arrangements.

That’s precisely what he did.

The justice left the checkpoint only to return later. This time the knife was detected inside his carry-on luggage by an X-ray machine. When he was told what security personnel were searching for, Saylor directed the screeners to the knife hidden inside a soft-sided shoe.

After being taken into custody and asked to show identification, Saylor was asked by officer Craig Berrier about a badge in his wallet. Saylor then revealed that he was a justice on the state Supreme Court.

Why would a state court justice try to break the law? Berrier’s report quotes Saylor as saying, “The knife was a gift from a very dear friend and [I] did not want to lose it.”

The facts speak for themselves: Saylor tried to get around the law. But there is hope at the bottom of this obviously ridiculous story: No one is above the law. Emotional testimony and status are not enough to put people’s lives or the integrity of the law in danger, and it is good that the Federal Transportation Security Administration was aware of that on Friday.

It’s also good to know the days of that old-school FBI agent practice known as “roast-beefing” — going into New York delis, flashing a badge and demanding more meat on sandwiches, or even the entire sandwich, for free — are over.

If the average citizen’s cuticle scissors are being confiscated from carry-on luggage, then a state Supreme Court justice’s pocketknife should be, too — as it was — especially when said justice tries to sneak it on the plane after being told that it was not allowed. Of all people, the interpreters of the law should know that bending the rules could eventually lead to breaking the rules. Saylor must have thought he could just break it all together.

After the knife was confiscated, and Saylor had been detained for an hour, he never even boarded an airplane. He now faces a fine of up to $6,000 if the TSA decides his actions were an attempt to circumvent security.

It sure would have saved Saylor some money if he had just rented a car and hired a driver to take him on Route 76 to Philly. He could have sat back with extra leg space, pocketknife in hand.