Originally Posted by uncertaintraveler
As a serious question (as in, I don't intend to make this a "political" issue), under what authority or law does the President or other "high-ranking" government official, or any member of their security detail, have the right to keep a U.S. citizen from enjoying and entering their own property during a presidential visit?
Fully agree with you and it drives me crazy, but I have a little more sympathy when it is presidential security. What really gets me steamed are the frequent small motorcades of one or two secret service / FBI / SUVs that drive like they are protecting the president, swerving, blocking streets, etc. when they are actually transporting some low-level person whose name i have never even heard.
Getting really off-topic now, there was an interesting issue recently in DC. Bush needed to go from DC to Virginia recently near rush hour. Secret Service made a request to Virginia Department of Transportation to shut down a major portion of a major highway (HOV lane on 395) during rush hour. VDOT said "no way" as they estimated it would inconvenience tens of thousands of drivers and cause a traffic jam that would last from rush hour until about 10pm. Secret Service tried to push it and thankfully VDOT stood firm. Bush eventually took a helicopter.
Of course, after the fact no one would take responsibility for the request. Lots of "we didn't realize it would inconvenience that many drivers. once we found that out, we rescinded the request". Yeah right.