Lawsuit challenges airline ID requirements
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Lawsuit challenges airline ID requirements
Ya gotta love the American legal system... 
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Suit challenges airline ID requirements
SAN FRANCISCO, California (Reuters) --A prominent civil libertarian sued the U.S. government and two major airlines Thursday, claiming that security requirements that compel U.S. citizens to show identification before flying are unconstitutional.
In a lawsuit filed in federal court in San Francisco, John Gilmore, co-founder of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, said that requiring ID from travelers who are not suspected of being a threat to airport security violates several amendments to the U.S. Constitution.
The lawsuit alleges that the regulations restrict freedom of travel, permit intrusive searches without good cause and violate the Freedom of Information Act because they have not been published in the Federal Register.
Although the ID requirements have been in effect since 1996, under the Computer Assisted Passenger Prescreening System (CAPPS) program, officials have increased their enforcement since the September 11 hijack attacks on New York and Washington, the lawsuit said.
Gilmore was prevented from flying by both UAL Corp.'s United Airlines and Southwest Airlines Co. on July 4, U.S. Independence Day, when he refused to produce ID or undergo extensive security screening, he told Reuters. As a result he hasn't flown since September 11 last year.
"It seemed obvious to me that the day we celebrate our freedom and independence would be a good day to see how much freedom we have left," he said.
Airline officials were unable to identify the specific regulation requiring identification, calling it an "unwritten" rule," the lawsuit says. Passenger trains and buses have similar restrictions, the suit said.
The Web sites of the Federal Aviation Administration and the Transportation Security Administration both say photo ID is required to travel, according to the suit.
But the passenger information section of the FAA site says airlines can allow people to travel without requiring ID if they use additional security measures.
Gilmore, who launched the Electronic Frontier Foundation in 1990 to lobby and educate about individual rights in cyberspace, said U.S. citizens have the right to travel anonymously.
Citizen dossiers
"There is no evidence against the vast majority of Americans," as to criminal activity, he said. "Yet they are being identified, tracked, and searched nevertheless.
"This policy violates decades and centuries of court decisions about the rights of innocent Americans," he said. "The mere demand for an ID is a search, which the Fourth Amendment protects us from."
The lawsuit claims the government, under CAPPS II, is preparing to combine travel booking and payment information with data from banks, credit-reporting agencies and other sources and integrate it with lists of suspected terrorists and criminals.
"Your life history will be gathered and scanned, using secret criteria, whenever you book a flight or arrive at an airport," said William Simpich, Gilmore's attorney. "This is the kind of data aggregation people have been fighting for 50 years or more and it's completely unacceptable."
A so-called "no-fly" list created by the FBI and Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has already been abused and used to harass innocent citizens who happened to have names that match those on the list, the lawsuit alleges.
"They're using September 11 as a stalking horse to enable the government to implement a much more comprehensive system of electronic dossiers on American citizens than has ever been done before," said Edward Hasbrouck, a San Francisco-based privacy and consumer advocate and author of travel guides. "CAPPS was in operation on September 11 and it didn't work."
The lawsuit names as defendants U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft and Tom Ridge, Homeland Security chief; as well as the heads of the FBI, the Transportation Department, the Federal Aviation Administration, the TSA; and United and Southwest airlines.
Spokespeople from the U.S. Attorney General's, TSA and Homeland Security offices, as well as United, said they had no comment, while officials from the other government agencies were unavailable to comment.
Angela Vargo, a spokeswoman for Southwest, said executives would look at the suit. "After what our country has been through in the past few months, frivolous lawsuits such as this are ridiculous," she said.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Suit challenges airline ID requirements
SAN FRANCISCO, California (Reuters) --A prominent civil libertarian sued the U.S. government and two major airlines Thursday, claiming that security requirements that compel U.S. citizens to show identification before flying are unconstitutional.
In a lawsuit filed in federal court in San Francisco, John Gilmore, co-founder of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, said that requiring ID from travelers who are not suspected of being a threat to airport security violates several amendments to the U.S. Constitution.
The lawsuit alleges that the regulations restrict freedom of travel, permit intrusive searches without good cause and violate the Freedom of Information Act because they have not been published in the Federal Register.
Although the ID requirements have been in effect since 1996, under the Computer Assisted Passenger Prescreening System (CAPPS) program, officials have increased their enforcement since the September 11 hijack attacks on New York and Washington, the lawsuit said.
Gilmore was prevented from flying by both UAL Corp.'s United Airlines and Southwest Airlines Co. on July 4, U.S. Independence Day, when he refused to produce ID or undergo extensive security screening, he told Reuters. As a result he hasn't flown since September 11 last year.
"It seemed obvious to me that the day we celebrate our freedom and independence would be a good day to see how much freedom we have left," he said.
Airline officials were unable to identify the specific regulation requiring identification, calling it an "unwritten" rule," the lawsuit says. Passenger trains and buses have similar restrictions, the suit said.
The Web sites of the Federal Aviation Administration and the Transportation Security Administration both say photo ID is required to travel, according to the suit.
But the passenger information section of the FAA site says airlines can allow people to travel without requiring ID if they use additional security measures.
Gilmore, who launched the Electronic Frontier Foundation in 1990 to lobby and educate about individual rights in cyberspace, said U.S. citizens have the right to travel anonymously.
Citizen dossiers
"There is no evidence against the vast majority of Americans," as to criminal activity, he said. "Yet they are being identified, tracked, and searched nevertheless.
"This policy violates decades and centuries of court decisions about the rights of innocent Americans," he said. "The mere demand for an ID is a search, which the Fourth Amendment protects us from."
The lawsuit claims the government, under CAPPS II, is preparing to combine travel booking and payment information with data from banks, credit-reporting agencies and other sources and integrate it with lists of suspected terrorists and criminals.
"Your life history will be gathered and scanned, using secret criteria, whenever you book a flight or arrive at an airport," said William Simpich, Gilmore's attorney. "This is the kind of data aggregation people have been fighting for 50 years or more and it's completely unacceptable."
A so-called "no-fly" list created by the FBI and Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has already been abused and used to harass innocent citizens who happened to have names that match those on the list, the lawsuit alleges.
"They're using September 11 as a stalking horse to enable the government to implement a much more comprehensive system of electronic dossiers on American citizens than has ever been done before," said Edward Hasbrouck, a San Francisco-based privacy and consumer advocate and author of travel guides. "CAPPS was in operation on September 11 and it didn't work."
The lawsuit names as defendants U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft and Tom Ridge, Homeland Security chief; as well as the heads of the FBI, the Transportation Department, the Federal Aviation Administration, the TSA; and United and Southwest airlines.
Spokespeople from the U.S. Attorney General's, TSA and Homeland Security offices, as well as United, said they had no comment, while officials from the other government agencies were unavailable to comment.
Angela Vargo, a spokeswoman for Southwest, said executives would look at the suit. "After what our country has been through in the past few months, frivolous lawsuits such as this are ridiculous," she said.
