[554] Suing Ashcroft: Anonymity, Right to Travel, Secret Laws

Description

John Gilmore is suing US Attorney General John Ashcroft over USgovernment requirements that people show ID in order to travel in their own country. This requirement is being imposed by secret regulations that the government refuses to publish; and for that reason the rules are unconstitutional. But also, making people show "your papers please" or be banned from assembling with each other violates freedom of assembly.

You can't speak to a conference without traveling to it; the restriction violates freedom of speech. And the requirement that people get an "ID card" in advance is an unconstitutional "licensing scheme" for this speech, assembly, and travel. Three solid court cases in the last ten years have held that a demand for ID is a search governed by the Fourth Amendment; a cop can't do such a search without probable cause to believe that a crime has been committed. Oh yes, and Americans have the right of free movement throughout every part of the country. All of these long-standing rights are violated by the "show ID or you won't get on a plane" -- or train or bus or cruise ship -- requirement.

The court case is specific to the law of the United States, but the principles are universal. Systems for tracking the domestic movements of free citizens, and restricting those movements at the convenience of the government, are anathema in a free society. Even yours.