privileged-tsa: AP: Justice Dept seeks secret judicial proceedings of airline ID case

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Lee Tien <tien () eff org>
Date: September 5, 2004 5:01:49 PM EDT
To: eff-privacy () eff org
Cc: Subject: [E-PRV] Fwd: privileged-tsa: AP: Justice Dept seeks secret 
judicial proceedings of airline ID case


> Justice Dept seeks secret judicial proceedings of airline ID case
>
> MAY WONG
>
> Associated Press
>
>
>
> SAN FRANCISCO - The U.S. Department of Justice has asked an appellate 
> court
> to keep its arguments secret for a case in which privacy advocate John
> Gilmore challenges federal requirements to show identification before
> boarding commercial flights.
>
> A federal statute and other regulations "prohibit the disclosure of
> sensitive security information, and that is precisely what is alleged 
> to be
> at issue here," the government said in court papers filed Friday with 
> the
> U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. Disclosing the restricted 
> information
> "would be detrimental to the security of transportation," the 
> government
> wrote.
>
> Attorneys for Gilmore, a 49-year-old San Francisco resident who 
> co-founded
> the Electronic Frontier Foundation, said they don't buy the 
> government's
> argument and that its latest request raises only more questions.
>
> "We're dealing with the government's review of a secret law that now 
> they
> want a secret judicial review for," one of Gilmore's attorneys, James
> Harrison, said in a phone interview Sunday. "This administration's use 
> of a
> secret law is more dangerous to the security of the nation than any 
> external
> threat."
>
> Gilmore first sued the government and several airlines in July 2002 
> after
> airline agents refused to let him board planes in San Francisco and 
> Oakland
> without first showing an ID or submitting to a more intense search. He
> claimed in his lawsuit the ID requirement is vague and ineffective, and
> violated his constitutional protections against illegal searches and
> seizures.
>
> A U.S. District Court judge earlier this year dismissed his claims 
> against
> the airlines but said his challenge to the government belonged in a 
> federal
> appellate court.
>
> Now under his appellate case, Gilmore, an early Sun Microsystems Inc.
> employee, maintains the federal government has yet to disclose the
> regulations behind the ID requirement to which he was subjected.
>
> "How are people supposed to follow laws if they don't know what they 
> are?"
> Harrison said.
>
> The government contends its court arguments should be sealed from 
> public
> view and heard before a judge outside the presence of Gilmore and his
> attorneys as well. The government, however, said it would plan to file
> another "redacted" public version of their arguments.
>
> A hearing on the matter has not yet been set.

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