Fergie's Tech Blog

John Gilmore Update: Court Backs Airport ID Checks

A Reuters newswire article, via Wired News, reports that:

Airlines and the U.S. government have the right to keep passengers from boarding planes if they refuse to show personal identification, a U.S. appeals court ruled Thursday.

John Gilmore, co-founder of online civil liberties group the Electronic Frontier Foundation, sued after Southwest and United Airlines in 2002 both did not allow him on board their flights when he refused to show any ID.

In court filing, he argued that requiring identification from airline passengers was unconstitutional, but a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals disagreed.

"We hold that neither the identification policy nor its application to Gilmore violated Gilmore's constitutional rights, and therefore we deny the petition," Judge Richard Paez wrote. "The Constitution does not guarantee the right to travel by any particular form of transportation."

posted by Fergie @ 1/26/2006 04:46:00 PM