Originally Posted by
fly4funsea
I remember some on here someone saying that an id is not required by law to fly. I remember a few yrs back forgetting my id (post 9/11) but I had my wallet which contained my ss card (I think), debit card and credit card. The kind lady at AA marked my boarding pass and I was able to get through security with no hassle. So is flying without an id or even an expired on an option?
Although TSA refuses to publish all the rules they require passengers to follow at airport checkpoints, from what we can distill from TSA press releases, blog posts, and other information they publish on the Web, it's relatively clear that your boarding pass is all the documentation that's ever required for domestic flights. It seems that passengers are not required to present documentation of their identities to TSA staff, and that doing so is not a condition of crossing the TSA checkpoint.
TSA's airport passenger identification policy changed on June 21, 2008.
Before June 21, 2008, the situation seemed to be: In order to proceed to the "secure area" of an airport after being stopped at a TSA barricade, each passenger must submit to a pat-down and search for metallic objects using a hand-held metal detector, along with a hand-searching of any carry-on baggage,
unless he presents documentation of his identity (i.e., unless he "shows I.D."), in which case he must submit only to a search for metallic objects on his person via walk-through metal detector and search of any carry-on baggage using an X-ray machine. Back then, showing I.D. simply bought you a less-thorough search than you'd otherwise receive.
Beginning June 21, 2008: Each passenger still has the option of showing I.D. and participating in the less-thorough searches (walk-through metal detector and X-raying of carry-ons), but the alternative now involves not only being thoroughly searched for dangerous items, but also identifying oneself verbally and participating in an interrogation intended to verify one's identity (via phone call from Homeland Security headquarters). Initial reports from TSA indicated that while people who claimed that their government-issued I.D. card was misplaced or stolen would be allowed to take the alternate route through the checkpoint (with the questioning), those who willfully refused to show their papers would be barred from proceeding. It's unclear whether or not this is still the case, or if it was ever the case, as
TSA's initial press release seems, based on information received from TSA via Freedom of Information Act request, to have been inaccurate.
In short, best we can tell, complying with TSA's "papers, please!" request is not necessary in order to fly domestically, it's simply a way to avoid the hassle of a thorough search for dangerous items and/or the hassle of providing convincing information in support of your claim to be who you say you are. This is a perfect system for people who wish to do harm in airports or on airplanes, since getting a falsified identification document (i.e., a "fake I.D.") is relatively simple, and presentation of one almost guarantees that TSA will look at someone with less scrutiny, making it easier for him to take weapons, explosives, or incendiaries past the security checkpoint.
The primary reason that TSA wants to know who you are is their desire to restrict people's movement based on Homeland Security blacklists. As did every government that has imposed totalitarian rules, TSA repeatedly tells us that their freedom-restricting policies are about safety, security, and rooting out subversives. Of course, this policy is really about extra-judicial punishment, allowing our executive branch of government to sidestep our judicial branch and punish someone for any reason or no reason at all.
For more on showing I.D. in the general sense, please see the
Identity Project's "What's Wrong With Showing ID?" page.
For more on TSA airport I.D. policies, see also the following FT threads: