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Thursday, June 19, 2008 Flying without an ID is coming to a controversial end
WASHINGTON
(CNN) -- It's a safe bet that every time you fly, you show a photo ID
to an official at the airport checkpoint. A
TSA officer checks a passenger's ID at Baltimore-Washington International
Airport. Every time Nick Kloiber
flies, he doesn't. Kloiber, 23, a University
of Kentucky Law School student and privacy advocate, knows something that you probably
don't -- contrary to popular belief, and contrary to some airport signs,
travelers are not required to present identification at airport checkpoints. Under current Transportation
Security Administration policy, passengers can refuse to show
identification and can still fly -- as long as they agree to secondary
screening, meaning a search of their carry-on bags and a pat down. But all that is about to
change. Beginning Saturday, June
21, travelers like Kloiber who "willfully refuse" to show IDs won't
be allowed through checkpoints or onto planes. Only passengers who show IDs,
and "cooperative" passengers who explain why their IDs are missing
and help police confirm their identities, will get through. The TSA says it is changing
the policy "to facilitate travel for legitimate passengers" while
helping its security work force focus on "people, not things." "It's a prudent
security measure to know who it is who's flying in the planes," said Kip
Hawley, head of the TSA. "It's not too much to ask, to say, just tell us
who you are." Raising
ire But the change in policy,
announced this month on the TSA Web site, has raised the ire of privacy
advocates who believe the TSA is setting a dangerous precedent, in essence
requiring U.S. citizens to carry documentation when traveling in the United
States, even if only by air. The right to free travel --
unencumbered by government officials demanding identity documents -- is
"something that distinguishes ourselves from others not living in the free
world," said Jim Harrison, an attorney who has fought document requirements. "History will
judge," Harrison said. "What's going on here is the TSA is
incrementally chipping away at the freedoms that Americans have. And the
freedoms that we're talking about are the fundamental right to travel, the
freedom to be free of search without reasonable suspicion and your First
Amendment freedoms to assemble and associate freely without government
interference." That's not the way TSA
chief Hawley sees it. "To us, it's not a philosophical argument," he
said. "There are people trying to do harm, take down planes, and we can't
let them [exploit] a vulnerability." 300 people
a day By all accounts, the number
of people who show up at airports without government-issued photo IDs is small. Of the 2 million people who
fly every day, only about 300 do not show IDs, according to TSA spokesman
Christopher White. The TSA does not keep
statistics on the reasons people don't have IDs, but it is presumed that most
people report them lost, stolen or simply forgotten. But a handful of people,
like Kloiber, tell TSA document checkers that they do not believe the
government has the right to require an ID. Kloiber said most TSA
document screeners he has encountered do not know the policy, so he requests
that they call a supervisor. If the supervisor is also unfamiliar with the TSA
policy, Kloiber pulls out a letter TSA wrote to his senator explaining the
policy. Or he pulls out a copy of a federal court ruling in the case of
"John Gilmore v. Alberto Gonzales," which involved TSA security
protocols. Often, he says, that is
enough to get him through the checkpoint -- with a patdown, but without showing
his driver's license. On July 4, 2002, John
Gilmore, the plaintiff in the federal case, challenged the TSA's pat-down and
search policies. Gilmore tried to board planes at two San Francisco-area
airports without showing an ID or submitting to a pat-down. Both times, he was
rebuffed. The TSA also refused to
show Gilmore or his lawyers the checkpoint ID and search policies, saying they
were sensitive security information, or SSI, a classification that prevents
them from public disclosure. Gilmore filed suit in
federal court. His lawyers fought unsuccessfully for the TSA checkpoint
procedures, arguing that the public had the right to know laws they are
expected to obey, and that lawyers have a right to review laws they are
challenging. The court declined to order
the TSA to reveal the regulations. And, after viewing the regulations
privately, out of public view, the judge ruled against Gilmore, saying his
constitutional right to travel was not violated because other forms of
transportation remained open to him. And, the court ruled, the
TSA's identification policy didn't violate Gilmore's rights because Gilmore had
the option of declining to show an ID and submitting to a legal search. But now, the new TSA policy
removes that option, privacy advocates said, making the new policy ripe for
another court challenge. "I anticipate that
this will be litigated," said Harrison, who represented Gilmore in the
California case. "Many people are upset about this change in policy." Privacy advocates also
question a second recent TSA policy change. In the Gilmore ruling, the judge
noted that if Gilmore wanted to avoid a search he thought was unconstitutional,
he could have merely walked away. But the TSA now says passengers cannot refuse
a search once they have entered the checkpoint area. Aside from questions of
law, Harrison and others say the new policy will not improve security. They say
that it affects only travelers who flatly refuse to provide identification, and
that terrorists are unlikely to draw attention to themselves by doing that. But the TSA says that under
the new policy, all people without IDs will face varying security measures,
from pat-downs to interviews with behavior detection officers. "By
increasing our options, people with bad intentions don't know what exactly to
plan against," the TSA said. Privacy advocates say the
TSA already uses those techniques, and say the policy change will only hurt
those who assert their rights. TSA officials say the need
to change the policy couldn't be more clear. The government ID checkers are
trained to spot false IDs, and the change provides another layer of security
needed to keep the skies safe. Without the change, they say, people could "game
the system," using a fake name and a fake boarding pass to bypass
screeners. Hawley
said agency lawyers have reviewed the new regulation and are
"comfortable" with it. |
