Entry tags:

9th circuit court of appeals, airport, civil liberties, continental, flying, id, papers please, rights, secret laws

The "Flying Without ID" Chronicles
Today I attempted to board an airplane without presenting ID. This is your right, according to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, but few airport workers know it, and even fewer flyers know it. No civilian has actually been able to look at this law. It's a secret law. You are governed by a law you are not allowed to see. These things actually exist in the United States!


I made it all the way to the security theater checkpoint without being asked to prove my identity. The lady checking boarding passes and IDs was a bit incensed when I didn't present her with photo ID and said quite plainly I couldn't fly without any. When I said I didn't have a photo ID, she sent me back to the ticket desk, saying I needed to be escorted up by someone from there. (I guess her first statement was false, then?)

I waited in the baggage check/boarding pass line again to speak to the person directing that traffic. She wanted to know how I had checked my bags without showing ID. (I had wondered this myself, but hadn't brought it up at the time.) I couldn't find who had checked in my bags - it was an older man - and after a few seconds of looking around for him, she lost interest I guess and pointed me to the information desk.

When I spoke with this man, he asked if I had any sort of ID. I said I had my credit card with which I had purchased the ticket. He asked to see it, and because I have a One Pass account with Continental, he looked up the account address, asked me to repeat it to him, and that was enough.

He then escorted me to the security line and filled out a book that seems like a sort of manual override of the security system. There's a place for type of ID (most of them were "C/Card") and a flyer name and security signature and such.

I apologized for the inconvenience (ha!) and he was very nice. He said it was a good thing I had a One Pass account with them or they would have to run a name check with the Port Authority. I'm guessing it's hard to exercise your full right to fly without ID here. I've read other accounts where airport officials were aware of this rule, but no one else at Newark seemed to know it.

I made it to the security theater lady again who looked for an okay wave from the man who had escorted me, then let me through. Once through the metal detector, I handed my boarding pass to the screener who takes those things. He asked me to step aside and asked another screener what the "SSSS" on the boarding pass means. (This was written by the guy who escorted me to designate that I was to undergo a secondary screening. According to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, I submitted to this secondary screening in lieu of presenting ID, which accounts for 3 of the 4 S's)

From there I was patted down and two men went through my belongings somewhat thoroughly with cloths to check for traces of explosives. (These cloths were analyzed in a machine.) It was over in about 10 minutes. Though more for show than anything, the two men were very friendly and professional and treated my property very carefully. One man asked the other man if my sandals had checked out so I wouldn't have to be barefoot through the whole process (little did they know I preferred to be).

All in all it was a very educational experience. It wasn't a complete success (I did have to surrender a credit card) but at least there was a system in place for that. I'm curious what will happen next time.