Freedom to Travel Event, Part 1

[Neo Hantoni]

There are a lot of things working against us, so we need to know exactly what we are doing.  To do this, we must learn from history.  What is the best recipe for civil disobedience?  Which principles work best to create a successful event?  How should we act?  What should we say?  How should we approach this issue?

The answers to these questions are easily found in your heart and in history.  Study what works.  Study Gandhi's principles and his life, mix this with your own knowledge and experiences, and you will know exactly what you're doing.

Yes, let us look at history.  Ghandi's salt march produced massive, nationwide civil disobedience.  How many people are there in New Hampshire immitating the manicuring protest?  Zero.  How long will the media coverage last?  Its already over.

What was accomplished?  You made a loud noise for a week.  Yet, I must still get a license to paint nails.  Now, it seems the crew is bored with the whole licensing schtick.  Enough about licensing.  Let's protest something else now. 

[Neo Hantoni]

You will be arrested, and your protest forgotten.  Nothing will have been achieved.

It's funny.

Those are the EXACT words someone used to warn me about the manicure event.

Sorry, Mike, but your protest has ALREADY been forgotten.  The crew turning its attention to a different project will assure that it remains so.

[Dave Ridley]

draft press release, suggestions welcome

From NHfree.com, 5/17/05

NH: Man without I.D. vows to board flight or be jailed

Inspired by New Hampshire's "outlaw manicurist," another Granite Stater
is stepping forward - literally - to defy license-related laws.  Russell
Kanning of Keene has announced he will approach a TSA checkpoint at Manchester airport
on June 11, refuse to show a drivers' license, then continue walking toward his flight
until arrested.

"In a free country," he says, "You do not need the government's permission to travel."
"My goal is to get on the plane with no I.D., if it's this time or next time...I'll just keep trying to do it."

Kanning stresses that he will not resist arrest or do anything that might be perceived as physically threatening.   He says this act of nonviolent resistance will follow the model laid down by Mahatma Gandhi, who used peaceful noncooperation to expel the British from India.

"We'll go slowly, we'll talk with them, we might even tell them everything we're going to do ahead of time.  We're *not* trying to hurt anybody," he says.

But Kanning says the parallels with Gandhi's situation go further than a shared belief in nonviolence.

"In South Africa (where Gandhi's protests began), Indians had to have special I.D...so it's very similar that way, and he wanted to burn it...He was appealing to that same basic idea that we have rights to not have to have paperwork to be able to move freely."

Earlier this month another Gandhi admirer, Mike Fisher of Newmarket, used the Mahatma's techniques to protest business licensing.  He announced he would perform an unlicensed manicure in front of the state licensing offices, earning a brief trip to jail and heavy regional media coverage for his point of view.

Kanning says Fisher's example inspired him to take similar action against personal licensing, which affects far more people.  He believes the Real I.D. amendment passed by the Senate this month will make things even worse.  But he says it's important to stay positive.   "The goal is we want to get to the point where we can travel without having to have paperwork so, this is the beginning of that.  We see light at the end of the tunnel. "

Currently the plan is for Kanning to arrive at the airport around noon, approaching the security checkpoint at around 12:30 p.m.     He may tweak the timing a bit if need be to avoid delaying other passengers.   

Summary:

What:  Civil disobedience against airplane passenger I.D. requirement
Where:  Manchester Airport in New Hampshire (exact spot to be determined)
When:  Saturday, June 11 @ noon
Who:  Russell Kanning of Keene, NH, supporters from NHfree.com
Why:  To draw attention to the fact that without a government license, you can barely go anywhere
How:  By approaching a TSA checkpoint with a ticket but no I.D, then walking forward through it until arrested or allowed to board.
Contacts:  Russell Kanning:  (603) 357-2049,  Kat Dillon (same number).  More contacts and details to appear in future releases, which will be posted to NHfree.com

[Dave Ridley]

Also can someone post a link to this thread from the announcement about this on our index page?  actually I think announcements on our index page should always contain a link to the threads discussing those announcements....  the threads are always more up to date.

[JonM]

I don't recall too many people saying Mike shouldn't have done the manicure protest, most of the dissent was on his pleading guilty.  By pleading not guilty the coverage would last longer, and if a jury trial could be had for such a charge, a FIJA plan could have been implemented.

There is no violation of the law if Russell is to apply ZAP to his protest.  He approaches the person at the beginning of security who asks to see his boarding pass and picture ID.  He says he has no picture ID.  The person says thou shalt not pass without an ID.  What then?  If he blocks passage of other passengers attempting to go through security is he still adhering to ZAP?  If he gets belligerent with the person who insists he have ID, is he still adhering to ZAP?

Mike's protest adhered to ZAP, he was buffing the nails of someone who agreed to have it done.  No person was harmed, threatened, or even inconvenienced by that protest, and most who read about it agreed that being thrown in jail for filing and buffing someone's nails is idiotic.  Russell most likely can't get arrested in this protest without doing something other than attempt to pass through security without ID.  If he does something further to cause his own arrest, what is the value of the protest?

Now if we switch perspective and look at this as a violation of one's constitutional right to freely travel between the several states, you could then announce after being denied that you will be suing all persons and agencies which conspire to deny your right to travel.  You may not get anywhere with that, but you might find some group equally against Read ID that might go for that (providing either lawyers or money).

Someone will have to do more research on the basis of the constitutional guarantee of freedom of travel, most of what I can find is footnotes noting it.

As emphasized in MR. JUSTICE HARLAN'S separate opinion, 241 protects only against interference with rights secured by other federal laws or by the Constitution itself. The right to interstate travel is a right that the Constitution itself guarantees, as the cases cited in the text make clear. Although these cases in fact involved governmental interference with the right of free interstate travel, [383 U.S. 745, 760]   their reasoning fully supports the conclusion that the constitutional right of interstate travel is a right secured against interference from any source whatever, whether governmental or private. In this connection, it is important to reiterate that the right to travel freely from State to State finds constitutional protection that is quite independent of the Fourteenth Amendment. We are not concerned here with the extent to which interstate travel may be regulated or controlled by the exercise of a State's police power acting within the confines of the Fourteenth Amendment. See Edwards v. California, 314 U.S. 160, 184 (concurring opinion); New York v. O'Neill, 359 U.S. 1, 6 -8. Nor is there any issue here as to the permissible extent of federal interference with the right within the confines of the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment. Cf. Zemel v. Rusk, 381 U.S. 1 ; Aptheker v. Secretary of State, 378 U.S. 500 ; Kent v. Dulles, 357 U.S. 116 . [383 U.S. 745, 761]

[Pat K]

You will be arrested, and your protest forgotten.? Nothing will have been achieved.

It's funny.

Those are the EXACT words someone used to warn me about the manicure event.

Sorry, Mike, but your protest has ALREADY been forgotten.? The crew turning its attention to a different project will assure that it remains so.

Nobody is forcing you to particapate. So don't. Your comments are very insulting.

[Kat Kanning]

You will be arrested, and your protest forgotten.  Nothing will have been achieved.

It's funny.

Those are the EXACT words someone used to warn me about the manicure event.

Sorry, Mike, but your protest has ALREADY been forgotten.  The crew turning its attention to a different project will assure that it remains so.

Nobody is forcing you to particapate. So don't. Your comments are very insulting.

I wouldn't take advice of some unidentified person.  His purpose here may be just to discourage any action.

[Lloyd Danforth]

I don't see what any of this has to do with National ID cards.  We are not subject to them, yet.
I know airlines require some sort of government generated ID, because, the government forces them to, but, even before 911, they had an obligation to protect ther passengers, by identifying everyone who gets on the plane.
I, too, don't see how far this can go, without violating ZAP, if, you get past the front door.
This could put you on the 'no fly list'.
We have an airline expert in Keene.  Has anyone asked him about this?

[Kat Kanning]

Many otherwise law abiding people have trouble in NH getting a driver's license because of the crazy ID requirements to get it.  I know a nice mommie who can't because she doesn't have the piece of paper from the government saying why she changed her name from her birth certificate name (she got married).  I know another person who can't get a NH driver's license because he doesn't have a birth certificate.  He's never lived in any other country and has had driver's licenses from other states, as does the nice mommie.  When the national ID card standards are in place, these kinds of problems will be nationwide and worse with the additional requirements they'll be asking for.  Many people will not be allowed to fly from lack of proper government papers.  The weird database problems we've seen with the No Fly list can be all over, not just on the airlines.

[Dave Ridley]

Rather than block the entry to the terminal he could just step aside and then keep coming back during until they arrest him.   Presumably he could wait until the line is short before returning each time.  I wonder if we should put something more specific in the press release regarding ways we could work *with* the TSA to ensure minimal inconvenience for passengers behind Russell.

[Russell Kanning]

I pledge $50 if Russell is fined.

I ain't payin no stinkin fines

[JonM]

Asking to go through security is not an arrest-able offense so far as I know (but there are those secret laws).  If he went up each time the person asking for ID changed, at best someone from the airport would ask him to leave the property, and what then?  Only by taking some other arrest-able action after he is denied entry could he be arrest-able unless someone overstepped their bounds.  An unlikely event if this protest is publicized in advance and those in the airport are aware of it.

Apparently the right to travel line is being explored, but it might be interesting to get such a case in a district slightly less wacky than the 9th.

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

[Russell Kanning]

I am attempting to travel without the permission of the US government. I don't think I will be slowing anyone else down....and if I did...it would be the governments fault...not mine. If I listened to the government, I couldn't even drive a car. They keep pushing and pushing and I am not going to take it anymore. I want to go to Philadelphia....and I don't recognize their right to stop me.
You can decide if you agree with me or if the government should direct where, how and when we can travel.

[Russell Kanning]

Since Gilmore took 'no' for an answer....all he can due is sue the government.....and stay in San Francisco. I am not appealing to the constitution......I just want to be free to travel. I shouldn't need the governments license/ID to do that.

[JonM]

That's fine, and I agree with that sentiment and desire. ?How do you intend to do this? ?If you go to security and refuse to show ID, you have not broken any public law, though who knows how many secret laws you're breaking. ?What can you do then that does not violate ZAP to make your point? ?Eventually if you just stand there you will be asked to leave before they try to arrest you, and if you refuse to move you will not be arrested for refusing to show ID, it will be for causing a public disturbance or some other catch-all charge like that. ?This is not a fight that can be fought like Mike's was. ?He wanted to bring forward debate on the merits of licensing businesses, and he succeeded. ?So far as I know he has no desire to actually set up a manicuring business without a license. ?Either you want to bring forward debate on the merits of the government requiring ID to travel, or you want to actually be able to travel with ID. ?If it's the first you may or may not be able to generate some debate based on how you conduct this act of civil disobedience, but it will be like the weather, everyone talks about it, but nobody does anything about it. ?Since this is a federal un-law, the only way to get it un-un-lawed is Congress or the courts. ?When a former congressman was hassled trying to get on board a plane and told she wasn't allowed to know what laws they were using against here, I got the impression it might be up to the courts. ?To go to the courts you need standing. ?Wanting to fly without ID isn't enough; you need to be denied the ability to fly without ID. ?At that point you can file suit for your constitutional right to travel without being hassled by the man. ?If you go down this road you'll have my full moral support. ?That and $3 or so will get you a cup of coffee at Starbucks.

http://www.parapolitics.info/phorum/read.php?f=34&i=317&t=317