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Gilmore V. Ashcroft

---You can be arrested for being in public without ID, it has been that way for many many years. The constitution has no such guarantee that gives you the right to be anonymous in public---

Actually, you're somewhat wrong here, although a recent Supreme Court decision has made things more questionable (http://www.papersplease.org/hiibel/index2.html). Theoretically, a policeman can not ask for your ID without "probable cause" or "reasonable suspicion". Is getting on a plane "probable cause" in your opinion?

The Constitution specifically states:
The Fourth Amendment
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

You should read up more on the actual court case on the plane thing that is currently being fought:

http://www.papersplease.org/gilmore/

On the 4th of July 2002, John Gilmore, American citizen, decided to take a trip from one part of the United States of America to another. He went to Oakland International Airport -- ticket in hand -- and was told he had to produce his ID if he wanted to travel. He asked to see the law demanding he show his 'papers' and was told after a time that the law was secret and no, he wouldn't be allowed to read it.

http://www.papersplease.org/gilmore/facts.html
John worked his way up the bureaucratic chain and was eventually told by United Airlines that there were security directives that mandated the showing of ID, but that he couldn't see them. These secret directives, issued by the Transportation Security Administration, are revised as often as weekly, and are transmitted orally rather than in writing. To make things even more confusing, these orally transmitted secret rules change depending on the airport.

Being told that there's a secret law that requires one to show ID before an American citizen can travel in his own country struck John as illegal. We have no 'papers' to show in the United States: how could they possibly be required in order to travel?

In addition, how could any 'law' requiring any citizen to do anything be a secret? None of this made sense.

---The constitution has no such guarantee that gives you the right to be anonymous in public---

Here are the Constitutional issues involved:
http://www.papersplease.org/gilmore/case.html
The right to travel involves a number of constitutional issues:
The 1st Amendment
Physical travel and the First Amendment are inextricably intertwined. If you can't travel, then how can you exercise your right to Assemble? You can't Associate either, because you won't be able to get anywhere. Your right to Free Speech is also affected. You can say what you want, just not at that conference you wanted to attend but couldn't because you weren't allowed to get on a plane.

The 4th Amendment
Refusing a government "request" for ID triggers a severe penalty, such as loss of free movement. And lest we forget, having to show your ID is a search without a warrant.

Thankfully, the United States of America has no national ID card. We have no 'papers' to show. How can we as citizens be forced to produce something on demand that we aren't required to have in the first place?

In this court case, the core issue of our right to travel has been obscured by other side issues, secret law being the most outrageous of them.

Secret Law
Secret law is an abomination. There is no published statute or regulation requiring traveler identification. The airlines and the federal government insist that federal law requires passengers to show identification, yet can point to no published source of that requirement.

The government can argue all they want that it's the airlines that are 'requesting' ID, but the bottom line is that the violation of constitutional rights can't be out-sourced.

---Don't want to show your ID to board a PRIVATELY owned plane? ---

But the private company that owns the plane has no such regulation for showing ID. They're being forced to follow a federal law. There's a difference between the two you know.

---If they are secret, then how do you know about them? And if you know about them, they are NOT secret.---

This is the really odd thing. The government admits that there is a law, but that we are not allowed to know what it says. This has come out during the court case, where the government's lawyers are only willing to tell the judge what the actual law is in private, under a confidentiality agreement:
http://www.sanluisobispo.com/mld/sanluisobispo/news/politics/9655267.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp

The federal government must argue its case in public against a privacy advocate who challenged a directive requiring identification before boarding an airplane, an appeals court has ruled.

The U.S. Department of Justice has refused to even confirm or deny the existence of such a rule. It has argued that national security requires directives dealing with transportation be kept secret.

The DOJ said it needed to file under seal its court papers detailing why the appeals court should throw out Oakland resident John Gilmore's challenge.

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against the government late Friday, attorneys involved in the case said Monday.

"It's wild that the government can't even confirm this most basic security directive that every passenger in the country knows exists," said Susan Seager, a lawyer who was preparing to argue on behalf of several news organizations, including The Associated Press, against the government's bid to seal.

More on this here:
http://writ.corporate.findlaw.com/hilden/20040914.html

Posted by: tic swayback   Posted on: 02/10/05 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

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