Ga. Lawmaker Proposes Doing Away With Driver's Licenses

[realjd]

http://www.boingboing.net/2011/01/24/flier-beats-tsa-vide.html
http://www.komonews.com/news/local/114346549.html

It's quite clear: there is no law (and no, the TSA cannot set the law, and they are not above it) that says one must show ID to fly, merely that without ID one is subject to additional screenings (besides, if one had to have ID, how would kids fly?  I didn't get a passport until I was over 16 due to the more frequent renewal requirements, and the only reason I have one is because the federal government decided that Canadians are terrorists).

People like you are the reason we are losing civil liberties every day.  One should not need to carry their papers just to travel within their own country.

There's a difference between Congressional legislation and Executive Branch regulation. In the ATSA act, Congress explicitly gave the TSA the power to regulate airport security. The TSA can create a regulation and they are allowed to enforce it. The lawsuit in your links was about the man being arrested for not showing ID. That's a completely different question then whether you can be barred from flying with no identification.

Other executive departments like the EPA, FDA, DOT, DHS, etc. routinely establish extra-Congressional regulations that aren't written into law. It was just a few weeks ago that the EPA had a hearing on banning lead ammunition on environmental grounds for instance, and medical items like silicone breast implants are banned in this country by FDA regulation, not Congressional law.

Is it constitutional? In my opinion, no. Executive Branch agencies have FAR too much leeway in establishing de facto laws with little to no oversight in my opinion. But that's the way it works now.

[vdeane]

For suggesting that a TSA administrative rule is above the law and that we should need ID to fly.

Great, I get no points for trying to find legit sources.  The first article was the one citied by one of the blog entries where I heard about this (the easiest one to find, actually).  I didn't think I'd have to dig deeper.

[realjd]

For suggesting that a TSA administrative rule is above the law and that we should need ID to fly.

Great, I get no points for trying to find legit sources.  The first article was the one citied by one of the blog entries where I heard about this (the easiest one to find, actually).  I didn't think I'd have to dig deeper.

You don't have to dig deeper. I think we just interpret the court case differently, and I do give you points for the source. I was just pointing out that the TSA administrative rules ARE above the law (or rather the law explicitly permits the TSA to make BS rules like this).

[Scott5114]

I don't see why the government should need to verify your identity in day-to-day business at all.

The government itself, maybe not so much. Other businesses–yes. I work for a casino. We require everyone on the gaming floor to have valid ID on them or they can't be there. Part of this is for age verification reasons, yes. But we also need to verify winners' identities when they hit jackpots.  If people owe back taxes and have an IRS lien on them, or simply want to blatantly dodge the tax burden, they are quite happy to lie about their identities. If we do not obtain ID and it turns out that they were lying the tax burden falls on the company to pay because we did not do due diligence in verifying their identity. ID also has to be obtained whenever buy-in and cash-out limits exceed certain levels due to Title 31 of the Bank Secrecy Act, which seeks to prevent money laundering.

[hm insulators]

I'm surprised one of our Arizona politicians hasn't come up with this same lame-brained idea!

As we model builders like to put it, this Georgia lawmaker has been sniffing too much glue.