FAA Inspector overstepping his authority (I think)

Hi everyone,

I've noticed there are some very knowledgable people on this list.
Maybe you can confirm / dispute some information.

A close friend is leasing his plane to a local school. The school has
had some maintenance documentation issues in the past. A local FSDO
inspector has been a real prick about it lately -- even threatening to
fine anyone who flies one of their planes until HE gives the go ahead.
Ted's plane didn't have a single thing wrong with it, and three days
of nonsense paperwork later -- it was cleared to fly again. But that
was three days of lost revenue this guy caused. And that was just one
case of his bull****.

Well, now this inspector is talking about pulling the airworthiness
certifications for all the planes at the school. Then each owner
would have to go to HIM with the mechanic and logs to show that
everything is properly documented before he would return the
certificate.

Discussions with two or three older / more experienced IAs on the
field found a general consensus that this inspector doesn't have the
authority to pull the airworthiness certificates from all the planes
indescriminately. At lease, not without an inspection that finds a
problem.

Do we have anyone on the list with experience in this area of the
regulations. There are just so many of them and most of the language
is "leagaliese" that its almost impossible to know for sure. But I
figured if someone else had experienced a situation with another
self-bloated inspector -- they might know the abilities of a FSDO
airworthiness inspector.

Thanks guys. Ted is pulling his hair out keeping from hitting this
guy....