Hi Flyertalkers,

I'm a regular flyertalk lurker. I posted a few months back about a boarding pass website that I created for a research project at school - it caused a minor storm when the FBI raided my house....

There is still an active TSA investigation into this incident, and I'm facing some potentially nasty civil fines.. But in any case, that is a separate matter.....

Since then, I've kept flying without ID. I firmly believe that it is my right - and from my amateur legal reading of Gilmore vs. Gonzales, I'm pretty sure that i'm allowed to fly without any ID - as long as I submit to a secondary screening, a pat down, and a swabbing of my possessions.

Typically, I tell them that I've forgotten/lost my ID - as it makes it far easier. They have standard procedures that tell them what to do in such cases, and it's usually even faster to get through the security line without ID than with.

However, today - I told them that I was asserting my right to not show ID - which didn't make them happy.

TSA called a DC airport authority police officer over, who compelled me to show ID. I read the HIbel case a few years back, so I know I have to show ID to a police officer when told to.. so I did. She then read my license number into her radio, and had her people run a criminal check against my name/details. TSA ended up filing an incident report of some kind too.

In any case, this is the first time that I've ever not been able to fly without ID - solely because I attempted to assert my rights.

I'm not happy about this. I was under the impression that there is no law compelling me to show any ID to any government employee to fly. I may be forced to show it to the airlines, but that is a private contractual matter between them and myself. If they choose to let me on the plane without it, then TSA shouldn't be able to interfere.

Other than writing the police officer a letter to ask her to cite the specific law that allowed her to force me to show ID at the airport (and what gave her probable cause, assuming it was a "Terry Stop"), does anyone in the Flyertalk community have any advice for me?

The full writeup of the experience is on my blog, here: http://paranoia.dubfire.net/2007/02/...on-police.html

Cheers,

Chris