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lawsuit: ID checks unconstitutional

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dash8driver

Foamy Specialist
Joined
Mar 25, 2002
Posts
1,217
ok, WTF, over?!?! who is this loser and how much gall do you have to have to think like this after what just happened?

i would like to find out how to contact this guy and send him a letter... what an idiot.

Suit challenges airline ID requirements

July 19, 2002 Posted: 9:40 AM EDT (1340 GMT)

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.
 
ok found john gilmore's email address along with the email addresses of the rest of the people in that organization.

John Gilmore is at ***DELETED***

you can also find the rest of the contacts at that company at

http://www.eff.org/contact.html

i'll be writing him a letter soon, i hope others will too.

[Edited to remove person's email address]
 
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I found (the) John's E mail address from an article off of the Net called "What's wrong with content protection "http://google.yahoo.com/bin/query?p=john+gilmore&hq=site:www.chguy.net
 
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The BS flag...

What a bunch of horse shi+!! I took a law course in college and remember going over cases because of the whole screening issue that started in the 1970s. Well, guess what... the courts determined (at the time) that a search at an airport screening check point was not a violation of the Bill of Rights because one voluntarily subjects him/herself to the search. In fact, you are not required to be searched, at all! You have an absolute right to refuse any search of your person or property. You simply turn around, walk out of the airport, and find other means of transportation. It's not like you are being visited at home by the Gestapo. There are a multitude of ways to get form point A to point B. Tell this bozo to charter his own private jet or drive his betwetting a$$ to his destination!!

My fellow Americans never cease to amaze me. People seem to forget that getting on an airplane is not a right... much like driving on public roads is not a right... it is a privilege. You get caught DUI and you lose your PRIVILEGE to operate a motor vehicle on public roads. It's really that simple. With every right we have comes a responsibility. Finally, this guy can file a lawsuit for anything he wants. Wether or not he will win is another story... it's just too bad companies (read consumers) have to foot the bill for a defense.

Yet another reason we need a "loser pays" tort system!!!

Regards,
RightBettor
 
Just got done sending him a "Please remove the navel lint from your craniam" letter.

If you don't like it, Freakin walk.
 
No suprise

Look where the moron is from! One of the most liberal screwed up areas of the country. Although I was born there, it has definitely become the land of fruits and nuts! So he doesn't want inocecent people to be ID'ed and we are only supposed to Check suspicious people. I gues that would be another law suit! Only in America.

""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"

Wasent everyone up in arms just a few weeks ago about profiling, which he is suggesting?? Did I say Moron, ya I guess I did. OK, I'm done. I am now going to email this yo yo. But remember, for all of you that do email him, he can use the email in court to prove whatever. So be carefull in what you say.
:mad:
 
Maybe this guy should sue 7-11 for ID checks when he buys beer, Movie theaters for ID checks for R rated (or X) movies. What about banks for asking for ID to cash a check. What a bonehead!
 
"Beware the Leader who bangs the drums of war in order to whip the citizenry into a patriotic fervor, for patriotism is indeed a double-edged sword. It both emboldens the blood, just as it narrows the mind. And when the drums of war have reached a fever pitch and the blood boils with hate and the mind has closed, the leader will have no need in seizing the rights of the citizenry. Rather, the citizenry, infused with fear and blinded by patriotism, will offer up all of their rights unto the leader and gladly so. How do I know? For this is what I have done. And I am Caeser." - - Julius Caeser


Think twice before you give up your Constitutional Rights! Those same rights that men and women fought and died for to protect!
 
amen flynhigh31.

The current level of ridiculous requirements being churned out by federal and state agencies sickens me. It is time for history to be a requirement to be an American. When all of our rights are gone in the name of being "safe and secure" and another event occurs as it surely will, we will all look at each other like a flock of sheep running over a cliff and wonder why we did it. We will find that every thing that being an American means will have been detroyed and we will be no different than all of the other socialist states that exist in the world.

Remember it is not only our right to question authority it is our DUTY. It is high time that we put an end to the trashing and diluting of our most sacred document, THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDANCE


Live free or die period
 

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