Slashdot Mirror
Airport ID Checks Constitutional
chill wrote to mention the decision handed down from the 9th Circuit U.S. Court of appeals in the case of Gilmore vs. Gonzales. The court found in the government's favour, saying "We hold that neither the identification policy nor its application to Gilmore violated Gilmore's constitutional rights, and therefore we deny the petition ... The Constitution does not guarantee the right to travel by any particular form of transportation."
Saenz v. Roe, there are three components to the right to travel:
(1) "the right of a citizen of one state to enter and leave another state";
(2) "the right to be treated as a welcome visitor rather than an unfriendly alien when temporarily present in the second state"; and
(3) "for those travelers who elect to become permanent residents, the right to be treated like other citizens of that state."
I/O Error G-17: Aborting Installation
Nonsense. If John Gilmore purchased a ticket from the airline in California, and boarded the plane in California, no interstate commerce is involved
Not according to the SCOTUS definition of interstate commerce. The SCOTUS definition of interstate commerce includes growing wheat for yourself in your own farm for your own consumption. As established in Wickard v. Filburn (1942).
Further, the reason why the medical marijuana case (Gonzales v. Raich (2005)) was decided in favor of the U.S. Government was due to the fact that selling marijuana in California affects the underground market for the drug, which crosses state broundaries.
Given these two SCOTUS decisions it seems pretty clear that purchasing a ticket in order to leave one state and enter another is interstate commerce. Further, boarding in one state and exiting in one state is probably interstate commerce too as the option to buy that seat was open to others outside the state and thus your action influenced their market value.
It's a crappy interpretation, imho, but it's currently what we've got.