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Judge to Hear Airline ID Challenge
John Gilmore, the co-founder of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, has sued United Airlines, Southwest Airlines, and Attorney General John Ashcroft, alleging that the airline ID requirement stems from a "secret law" that violates his right to anonymous travel within the United States. Despite a motion to dismiss it, a U.S. District Court judge has agreed to hear a challenge to the airline requirement that forces passengers to show identification before boarding a plane.

United States courts have recognized for more than a century that honest citizens have the right to travel throughout America without government restrictions. Some people say that everything changed on 9/11, but patriots have stood by our Constitution through centuries of conflict and uncertainty. Any government that tracks its citizens� movements and associations, or restricts their travel using secret decrees, is violating that Constitution. It is a Constitutional right to refuse to identify ourselves to government agents unless there is probable cause to suspect us of a crime.

"If there's a law that requires the public to show an ID, we ought to know about it," he said after the hearing. He maintains that the mere demand for an ID is an unreasonable requirement that violates the Fourth Amendment. His attorney, William Simpich, argued before Judge Susan Illston that the requirement that Americans show their ID for domestic travel was the equivalent of creating an internal passport that allows authorities to monitor people's movements and activities in the United States. Additionally, he argued that United Airlines' requirement that Gilmore either show his ID or be frisked violated Fourth Amendment protections against unreasonable searches.

posted by Hal 9:14 PM