"Freedom to Travel" Event

[Friday]

Don't know if someone already posted this somewhere, but John Gilmore lost his fight over this issue.

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A federal appeals court has upheld a government regulation that requires passengers to show ID before boarding a commercial airplane. The only problem is, the court refused to reveal exactly what the regulation requires -- or even to allow anyone to see a copy of it.

The case in question was filed by John Gilmore, a longtime libertarian and co-founder of the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Gilmore had declined to show a government-issued identification card or submit to an enhanced search in July 2002 while trying to fly from Oakland to Washington, DC.

At the time, Gilmore was told by an airport security agent that a Transportation Security Administration (TSA) directive required passengers to show identification before boarding an airplane. When he asked to see the directive, Gilmore was told it was transmitted orally, and was not available in writing.

Gilmore filed suit in federal court. He argued that the requirement to show an ID violated the Fourth Amendment's protection against illegal search and infringed on his right to travel freely.

Gilmore's attorneys requested a copy of the TSA directive, but were told by the government that it was "Sensitive Security Information." Gilmore added to his lawsuit the complaint that such a secret regulation was unconstitutionally vague and violated his right to due process.

During the first round of hearings in court, government lawyers "refused to confirm or deny a federal law or regulation requiring IDs at airports even exists," according to the Associated Press. When the lower court ruled against Gilmore, he appealed.

On January 26, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected Gilmore's arguments. It said the identification policy did not violate the Fourth Amendment because passengers were free to walk away rather than show an ID or be searched. The judges also ruled that all airline passengers are informed about the ID rule, so it does not violate any Constitutional due-process provisions.

Oddly, however, Gilmore still hasn't seen the regulation that inspired him to file the lawsuit. The U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals judges reviewed the government's regulation in private, saying they could not disclose its contents in court for security reasons.

During the appeal court hearings in December, one of Gilmore's attorneys, James Harrison, had noted, "This is America. We do not have secret laws."

Except, apparently, we do. And three judges on the Circuit Court of Appeals think that's perfectly okay.

In a more libertarian America, it's easy to imagine that most commercial airlines *would* require passengers to show ID before boarding -- both as a security measure and to maintain an accurate list of passengers in case of an accident. The airlines wouldn't need to be secretive about such a policy; customers would be notified that identification is required in order to do business with the airline. Potential passengers would be free to accept or reject such a requirement, or shop for an airline with different policies.

But that's not how the Kafkaesque U.S. government works. In today's America, politicians and bureaucrats write regulations that citizens can't see. Government lawyers decline to confirm or deny the existence of such regulations. And judges rule on the constitutionality of such secret regulations -- while refusing to allow the citizens affected by them to read them.

In the long run, doesn't a government that allows secret laws sound a lot more alarming than the possibility that John Gilmore might take a trip without showing an ID card?

Sources:
http://www.theadvocates.org/liberator/vol-11-num-3.html
http://www.insidebayarea.com/oaklandtribune/localnews/ci_3443146
http://news.com.com/Airport+ID+checks+legally+enforced/2100-7348_3-5987820.html   

[Kat Kanning]

  "The only problem is, the court refused to reveal exactly what the regulation requires -- or even to allow anyone to see a copy of it."

[Russell Kanning]

I guess we expected this. It doesn't work to sue the government.

[Tunga]

You can't even blow up one of thier buildings without presidential permission either.

http://worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=49535

"First, Terry Nichols and, to some degree, Timothy McVeigh appear to have had contact with Arab, Muslim, or Middle Eastern terrorist elements prior to and during the implementation of the bomb plot," he wrote. "Second, just as significant, there is evidence of a personal relationship between Timothy McVeigh and Andreas Carl Strassmeier, a German national who was promoting violent insurrection to white supremacists at their nearby stronghold called Elohim City."

Rohrabacher concludes in his memo to Hyde: "(I)t is highly likely that the Arab connection and or the Strassmeier connection played a significant role in the planning and execution of the murderous bombing of the OKC federal building. In both possible scenarios, the official investigation fell short and further investigation has been discouraged ever since."

[KBCraig]

I would imagine that Gilmore isn't through fighting. He's got both the money and the will to see it through to the end.

This was a 9th Circuit ruling, appropriately known as the "9th Circus". They make all sorts of crazy rulings, and are the most overturned of any court.

Kevin

[Russell Kanning]

But seeing it through to the "end" doesn't seem to do anything.

[Friday]

I would imagine that Gilmore isn't through fighting. He's got both the money and the will to see it through to the end.

This was a 9th Circuit ruling, appropriately known as the "9th Circus". They make all sorts of crazy rulings, and are the most overturned of any court.

OK, here's a good opportunity for me to learn something: what is a "circuit ruling"?  Is that a step in between a state supreme court and the federal supreme court?  Maybe they explained the U.S. judicial system to me at some point in skool, but I have no recollection of such an event taking place. 

[Dreepa]

I am no expert but I found these:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Circuit_Court

http://www.uscourts.gov/courtlinks/

Sandy thanks for bringing it up.  I learned lots too.

[KBCraig]

If this ruling was by a 3 judge panel of the 9th, then Gilmore has two appeals left. One, to the full circuit court of appeals (all the judges participating), and another to the Supreme Court.

If this ruling was by the full court, then he still has an appeal to the Supreme Court.

Gilmore has to decide if he wants to risk a nationwide Supreme Court precedent on the matter of ID, with a court that leans towards "the police can do whatever they want".

Kevin

[Russell Kanning]

Yea and like KB said the 9th Circus Court that happens to be in Caleeforneeah has said some of the most outrageous stuff.

[Russell Kanning]

This was probably always in the Federal Courts since he was suing Ashcroft then Gonzales .....

[Kat Kanning]

    

Airline passengers face lie detector tests

Adrian Blomfield / London Telegraph | April 6 2006

Millions of airline passengers travelling through Russia will soon have to take a lie detector test as part of new security measures.

The technology, to be introduced at Moscow's Domodedovo airport as early as July, is intended to identify terrorists and drug smugglers. If successful, it could revolutionise check-ins.

Passengers will pick up the handset of a "truth verifier" machine while they are asked questions. Apparently the machine, developed by an Israeli company, can even establish whether answers come from the memory or the imagination.

The technology is being used by some insurance companies in Britain to screen telephone claims for fraud.

"We know that this could be uncomfortable for some passengers but it is a necessary step," said Vladimir Kornilov, the IT director for East Line, which operates the airport.

At first, only passengers deemed suspicious by the FSB, the security service that succeeded the KGB, will take the test. But it will eventually encompass all passengers.

"If a person fails, he is accompanied by a guard to a cubicle where he is asked questions in a more intense atmosphere," Mr Kornilov said.

The machine asks four questions. The first is for full identity, while the second, unnerving in its Soviet-style abruptness, demands: "Have you ever lied to the authorities?" It then asks if the passenger is carrying weapons or narcotics.

To cut delays to a minimum, passengers will take the test after putting their shoes and baggage through the X-ray machines and before retrieving them. Officials insist that it will take between 30 seconds and a minute.

[Dreepa]

Moscow's Domodedovo airport

FYI This is mainly a domestic airport (or former USSR places as well).

[Pat McCotter]

   

Airline passengers face lie detector tests
...
Passengers will pick up the handset of a "truth verifier" machine while they are asked questions. Apparently the machine, developed by an Israeli company, can even establish whether answers come from the memory or the imagination.
...

If it works so well why aren't the security conscious Israelis using it?

[Kat Kanning]

Airlines Balk at Epidemic Safeguards
Apr 25 5:32 PM US/Eastern
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By LESLIE MILLER
Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON

Concerned about bird flu, federal health officials want airlines to collect personal information about domestic and international passengers to help track a potential epidemic.

Financially strapped airlines say creating such a database would impose staggering new costs.

"What we're asking for is the authority to collect the information in the context of modern travel on airlines," Dr. Marty Cetron, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention's director of global migration and quarantine, said Tuesday in a telephone interview with The Associated Press.

"There's just a number of conditions where acting quickly with electronic access to passenger information is going to make a lot of difference," Cetron said.

The CDC wants to be able to easily find, notify and recommend treatment to airline passengers who have been exposed to bird flu as well as such diseases as plague, dengue fever or SARS _ even if the travelers' symptoms don't appear while they're traveling.

Health officials are especially concerned about a flu pandemic. Though bird flu hasn't yet spread from human to human, they fear it could mutate into a strain that does.

The CDC plan calls for airlines to ask passengers their full name and address, emergency contact numbers and detailed flight information.

Airlines would have to keep the data for 60 days and, if asked, transmit it to the CDC within 12 hours.

The Air Transport Association, which represents major airlines, said the plan "represents an unwarranted and insupportable burden on an industry sector that can ill afford it."

ATA lawyer Katherine Andrus said in an interview that the CDC plan wouldn't work because of cost, technological difficulty and the time needed to fill out the forms.

"We don't think that, as proposed, this is a workable approach," Andrus said.

Airlines worked with the government to locate passengers exposed to SARS, which quickly swept the globe after emerging in rural China in the spring of 2003.

Tracking people in the U.S. who were exposed to SARS turned out to be a challenge. The CDC had to gather passenger names by hand from Customs declarations and flight manifests express-mailed by the airlines.

"More than half the time, using the address or phone we had, we couldn't find the individual," Cetron said.

The new CDC plan, eight years in the making, is an effort to update antiquated rules first written when people traveled internationally by ship, Cetron said. It also creates a system of due process for people who are quarantined and makes clear the procedures and jurisdiction over people carrying contagious, deadly diseases.

The CDC is open to other airline proposals for sharing passenger information because it doesn't want to drive them out of business, Cetron said.

Another government agency, the Transportation Security Administration, has struggled for years to compel airlines to electronically transmit information about airline passengers within the United States so that the government can check their names against watch lists.

Concerns about privacy and cost _ airlines say it is in the billions of dollars _ are among the factors that have stymied the TSA.

On international flights to the U.S., airlines already transmit passenger information to the Homeland Security Department, which then checks it against terrorist watch lists.

Homeland Security has agreed to share that information with the CDC in order to track passengers who've been exposed to communicable diseases.

Civil libertarians say that agreement violates a deal with the European Union that would prevent the Homeland Security Department from sharing passenger information.

Barry Steinhardt, an American Civil Liberties Union attorney, said the U.S. government blithely ignored its agreement with the European Union that it wouldn't share passenger records.

He also doesn't think the CDC plan will work.

"This is probably physically impossible," Steinhardt said.

Cetron said the agreement between CDC and Homeland Security states that the information sharing must conform to the agreement between Homeland Security and the European Union.