John Gilmore, co-founder of the Electronic Frontier Foundation among other virtues, has filed a lawsuit against the US government challenging as unconstitutional the requirement to show ID before boarding a US domestic plane.

At issue is a series of secret security directives issued by the Federal Aviation Administration and/or the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), in consultation with the Department of Justice and the Office of Homeland Security.  The directives appear to require US airlines to demand identification before allowing customers to travel.  Because the directives are secret, no citizen actually knows what they require.

Such regulations are unconstitutional because they are unpublished; require government agents to search and seize citizens who are not suspected of crimes; burden the rights to travel, associate, and petition the government; and discriminate against those who choose anonymity.

I’m a die-hard civil libertarian, but even I found this a bit to hard to swallow. If you do as well, I urge you to read the FAQ, which spells out what was news to me: flying without ID isn’t against the law. No law from Congress, no Executive Order. What forbids it are various secret rules promulgated by—well, no one’s quite sure. And what the Supreme Court has stated in no uncertain terms is that Americans have the right to anonymity, and the right to travel.

I thought this was an interesting case. Don’t dismiss it before you’ve read the site.