II 

110TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION S. 1891 

To provide limited immunity for reports of suspected terrorist activity or 

suspicious behavior and response. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

JULY 26, 2007 

Mr. SALAZAR introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred 

to the Committee on the Judiciary 

A BILL 

To provide limited immunity for reports of suspected 

terrorist activity or suspicious behavior and response. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. IMMUNITY FOR REPORTS OF SUSPECTED TER4 RORIST ACTIVITY OR SUSPICIOUS BEHAVIOR 

5 AND RESPONSE. 

6 (a) IMMUNITY FOR REPORTS OF SUSPECTED TER7 RORIST ACTIVITY OR SUSPICIOUS BEHAVIOR.— 

8 (1) IN GENERAL.—Any person, who, in good 

9 faith and based on objectively reasonable suspicion, 

10 makes, or causes to be made, a voluntary report 


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1 based of covered activity to an authorized official 

2 shall be immune from civil liability under any Fed3 eral, State, or local law for such report. 

4 (2) FALSE REPORTS.—Paragraph (1) shall not 

5 apply to any report that the person knew to be false 

6 or was made with reckless disregard for the truth at 

7 the time that person made the report. 

8 (b) IMMUNITY FOR RESPONSE.— 

9 (1) IN GENERAL.— 

10 (A) IMMUNITY.—Any authorized official 

11 who observes, or receives a report of, covered 

12 activity and takes reasonable action in good 

13 faith to respond to such activity shall have 

14 qualified immunity from civil liability for such 

15 action, consistent with applicable law in the rel16 evant jurisdiction. 

17 (B) ADDITIONAL IMMUNITY.—An author18 ized official described in subsection (d)(1)(A) 

19 not entitled to assert the defense of qualified 

20 immunity shall be immune from civil liability 

21 under Federal, State, and local law if such au22 thorized official takes reasonable action, in good 

23 faith, to respond to the reported activity. 

24 (2) SAVINGS CLAUSE.—Nothing in this sub25 section shall— 


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1 (A) affect the ability of any authorized of2 ficial to assert any defense, privilege, or immu3 nity that would otherwise be available; and 

4 (B) be construed as affecting any such de5 fense. 

6 (c) ATTORNEY FEES AND COSTS.—Any person or au7 thorized official found to be immune from civil liability 

8 under this section shall be entitled to recover from the 

9 plaintiff all reasonable costs and attorney fees. 

10 (d) DEFINITIONS.—In this section: 

11 (1) AUTHORIZED OFFICIAL.—The term ‘‘au12 thorized official’’ means— 

13 (A) any employee or agent of a passenger 

14 transportation system or other person with re15 sponsibilities relating to the security of such 

16 systems; 

17 (B) any officer, employee, or agent of the 

18 Department of Homeland Security, the Depart19 ment of Transportation, or the Department of 

20 Justice with responsibilities relating to the se21 curity of passenger transportation systems; or 

22 (C) any Federal, State, or local law en23 forcement officer. 

24 (2) COVERED ACTIVITY.—The term ‘‘covered 

25 activity’’ means any suspicious transaction, activity, 


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1 or occurrence that involves, or is directed against, a 

2 passenger transportation system or vehicle or its 

3 passengers indicating that an individual may be en4 gaging, or preparing to engage, in a violation of law 

5 relating to— 

6 (A) a threat to a passenger transportation 

7 system or passenger safety or security; or 

8 (B) an act of terrorism (as that term is de9 fined in section 3077 of title 18, United States 

10 Code). 

11 (3) PASSENGER TRANSPORTATION.—The term 

12 ‘‘passenger transportation’’ means— 

13 (A) public transportation, as defined in 

14 section 5302 of title 49, United States Code; 

15 (B) over-the-road bus transportation and 

16 school bus transportation; 

17 (C) intercity passenger rail transportation 

18 as defined in section 24102 of title 49, United 

19 States Code; 

20 (D) the transportation of passenger vessel 

21 as defined in section 2101 of title 46, United 

22 States Code; 

23 (E) other regularly scheduled waterborne 

24 transportation service of passengers by vessel of 

25 at least 20 gross tons; and 


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1 (F) air transportation, as defined in sec2 tion 40102 of title 49, United States Code, of 

3 passengers. 

4 (4) PASSENGER TRANSPORTATION SYSTEM.— 

5 The term ‘‘passenger transportation system’’ means 

6 an entity or entities organized to provide passenger 

7 transportation using vehicles, including the infra8 structure used to provide such transportation. 

9 (5) VEHICLE.—The term ‘‘vehicle’’ has the 

10 meaning given to that term in section 1992(16) of 

11 title 18, United States Code. 

12 (6) EFFECTIVE DATE.—This section shall take 

13 effect immediately upon the date of enactment of 

14 this Act, and shall apply to all activities and claims 

15 occurring on or after such date. 

Æ 


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