EFF cofounder John Gilmore responds to the "flying-without-ID" story we pointed to on BoingBoing last week:
The story's slant is a bit off.
We aren't complaining that "TSA security [is] lax", as in your
headline. Nor are we saying that "TSA agents frequently fail to
enforce the agency's rule that travelers must present
government-issued ID". It's the opposite, actually.
The secret ID rule is that you can fly without ID. TSA confirmed this
to Ryan Singel today. The Ninth Circuit confirmed it in their opinion
in my case. DoJ confirmed this in their filings in the case.
The published signs all contradict this, as you know. So does the TSA
web site.
Checking IDs has nothing to do with security, nor does a lack of ID
checks make TSA "lax". I think they'd do a lot better job of
searching passengers if they weren't distracted by all the ID crap,
which was enacted half as "security theatre" and half to protect
airline revenue by disallowing people from selling their unused
tickets to each other.
We're complaining first that TSA and the airlines are lying to the
public about the real rule on ID. And second that they are not
actually letting some people fly without ID even though the rule is
that they can.
(E.g. Southwest didn't let me fly without ID, and didn't offer me a
secondary search, when I tried on July 4, 2002. They said they didn't
let me on because "I said I have an ID but declined to show it". We
tend to see this pattern. If you say your dog ate it, they let you
fly; if you say you have a right to fly without showing ID, they kick
you off.)
Related links: Ryan Singel's blog entry is here, TSA web site saying you need ID is here, and here are the TSA signs in airports saying you need ID.
Previously on BoingBoing:
Survey: Sometimes you can fly without ID, TSA security lax
Reader comment: Siva Vaidhyanathan says, "I just posted a follow-up to the TSA-Gilmore story you linked to on BB: Can you board a plane without ID?" Snip:
Last weekend we were flying back from Miami, where Jaya went swimming with her grandparents and saw her first spring training game. Just before we left my parents' place for the airport, I discovered that I had failed to retrieve my driver's license from the place from which I had rented a kayak the day before.
How was I going to get on the plane back to New York without a government-issued ID?
Well, we know from following John Gilmore's suit against the TSA, there is no public law that requires us to show IDs before boarding planes. There is apparently a SECRET law that no one may read yet many must enforce (and many more must obey.) This being a republic, we are not supposed to have secret laws. But we do. And that's one of them.
