The controversy over the Transportation Security Administration’s invasive scanned images or hands-on pat-downs of travelers was reignited today when screeners in Tennessee detained Sen. Rand Paul while he was en route to Washington.

Local television stations reported that Nashville International Airport authorities detained the U.S. senator when he refused to have a pat-down.

He told the News 2 television station that the full body scan signaled an alarm as he walked through security, and authorities said it appeared something was on his right leg. He reported he offered to go through the scanner again, but was refused and ordered to have the physical pat-down.

He refused, calling it a glitch in the system, and was escorted out of the screening area by law enforcement officers, the report said.

The TSA said any sort of irregularity in the screening process has to be resolved before a passenger is allowed into a “secure” area of an airport, and passengers who refuse to submit to the TSA’s demands cannot be allowed to proceed.

“The passenger was not detained at any point,” the TSA announced in its statement about the conflict. “The passenger triggered an alarm during routine airport screening and refused to complete the screening process in order to resolve the issue. Passengers, as in this case, who refuse to comply with security procedures are denied access to the secure gate area. He was escorted out of the screening area by local law enforcement.”

The TSA a year and a half ago came under intense criticism for having an imaging technology that revealed virtually nude images of passengers – in fact there were disciplinary situations because TSA employees were making fun of the private parts of other employees who went through the imagining.

At the same time, the pat-down procedures were enhanced to have security officers physically touch the private parts of passengers.

Since the uproar, the TSA has worked to install other technology that it claims uses only a generic image for all passengers to protect their privacy. However, the passenger who warned a security officer not to “touch my junk” still attracts attention.

Moira Bagley, a spokeswoman for Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., reported on Twitter what the senator experienced.

“Just got a call from @senrandpaul. He’s currently being detained by TSA in Nashville,” Bagley said.

Paul, the son of Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul, ultimately was rescreened and booked on another flight, officials reported.

The senator has had some harsh words for the TSA. “It makes me think you’re clueless,” he said at a Senate hearing on the controversy. “Myself and a lot of other Americans … think you’ve gone overboard [by] doing invasive searches on 6-year-old girls.”

Rep. Ron Paul was irate.

“The police state in this country is growing out of control,” he told the Daily Caller. “One of the ultimate embodiments of this is the TSA that gropes and grabs our kids and our seniors and does nothing to keep us safe.”

He has proposed the “American Traveler Dignity Act” which would allow lawsuits or charges under local laws against TSA agents who conduct invasive pat-down procedures and such. Critics describe the situations as sexual assaults in public.

The GOP candidate noted his “Restore America Plan” would eliminate the TSA.

A report on ABC suggested there could be more trouble yet.

It explained that the U.S. Constitution provides: “The Senators and Representatives…shall in all Cases, except Treason, Felony and Breach of the Peace, be privileged from Arrest during their Attendance at the Session of their respective Houses, and in going to and returning from the same…”

That’s in Article I of the U.S. Constitution.

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