Libertarian activist, John Gilmore has been denied boarding airplanes twice recently because he refused to provide identification. When he was told that federal regulations required that one show ID, Gilmore asked to see the law. The response was that it is secret! What? A rational person would say that’s nuts. But Ashcroft's Justice Department has refused to admit that such a regulation even exists, saying that doing so publicly would violate federal law. That’s amazing!

Now, the government is suing to make the disclosure suit filed by Gilmore and several news organizations secret, too! The Justice Department, when speaking of the ID requirement refers to the “alleged” regulation because to admit it exists, they say, would be illegal. How does a secret law work? I thought laws were matters of public record so the people know what rules govern their behavior. Is your head spinning yet?

I have attached the [poorly written] story from the Sacramento Bee below:

Bitter fight over air security
U.S. won't even admit there's a directive requiring ID to board planes.
By Claire Cooper -- Bee Legal Affairs WriterPublished 2:15 am PDT Tuesday, September 21, 2004

SAN FRANCISCO - The U.S. Department of Justice said Monday that information on an alleged airline security directive will be withheld from a federal appeals court until the court reweighs the department's request to file its brief under seal for a closed-door, judges-only review.

The department informed the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that it will meet its Sept. 29 deadline for filing its brief "but will not be providing the court with the confidential material that could aid its consideration of this case." At the center of the controversy is the federal policy that requires air passengers to present government-issued identification before boarding planes.

Its secrecy has long riled privacy advocates, including the Electronic Privacy Information Center, the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the group Privacy Activism, which object to asking passengers to comply with an unknown identification policy.

With backing from those organizations and other friends of the court, Libertarian Party activist John Gilmore of San Francisco has sued Attorney General John Ashcroft to force disclosure of the regulation. He has not flown since July 4, 2002, when he was twice barred from boarding planes at Oakland International and San Francisco international airports after refusing to show identification.

In response, Ashcroft's Justice Department has refused to admit that a regulation even exists, saying that doing so publicly would violate federal law.

Now the government's request to cloak the disclosure suit in secrecy is stirring other potential opposition because, said media lawyer Susan Seager, court documents and proceedings traditionally are open. That's particularly true in cases like Gilmore's, she said, where "everybody and their mother is aware" that there's an ID policy.

Seager was prepared to file a brief in the 9th Circuit on behalf of several news organizations, including The Bee's parent The McClatchy Co., when a court commissioner on Sept. 10 abruptly denied the government's request to shield its defense brief and the court proceedings from all outsiders, including Gilmore and his lawyer. The commissioner cited technical restrictions on the scope of appellate review but provided no further explanation.

Seager was busy contacting the news groups again Monday after the Justice Department renewed its appeal for secret court proceedings over what it continued to refer to as the "alleged security directive." The government's new motion argues that the commissioner misapplied the appellate rules.

Gilmore's lawyer, James Harrison, said the government's procedural argument was wrong and so was its argument for conducting the case in secret.

"All we're talking about here is John Gilmore went to the airport and tried to fly without showing ID, and he was told by two airlines that federal regulations required ID, and John Gilmore said, 'I'd like to see the law,' " Harrison said.

Showing that law to the court secretly "is not a way to run a democratic society," he said.


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