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Everyone has a story to illustrate that the TSA may not be the brightest bulbs on Broadway.  I read a blog on C/Net today that once again proved to me that they are either incredibly naive or don't really think things through. Almost since 9/11 you could still fly on US airlines without showing ID. It would subject you to increased scrutiny and a pat down search, but if you did not have ID you could still fly.  I found about this because once while flying with Dave Greenstein of StillSecure he forgot his ID and was still able to get home.

Now the TSA is saying that if you willfully refuse to product ID you cannot fly at all.  However, if you forget or don't have ID you can still fly as long as you are cooperative.  This is after several lawsuits were brought that said showing ID was an unconstitutional inhibition on the right to travel between the states. The courts have said that as long as you have extra security, that is fine.

Now the TSA has published a memo that as of June 21, 2008 passengers who willfully refuse to produce ID will not be allowed to fly.  If a passenger just forgot or doesn't have ID as long as they are cooperative, they can still fly with the usual extra searches and so forth.  Now maybe on its face, that sounds OK, but lets think about it.  Who is really going to be subject to this? 

Do you think a real life terrorist is going to say that he or she refuses to produce ID? Of course not.  They are going to say they forgot it and go through security.  The only people who are going to refuse to produce ID are those people who are seeking to exert and protect their constitutionally protected rights. So these are the people the TSA will punish while patting down and sending on the real threats.  So what does this do to make us safer?  Just another case in my mind of our privacy rights taking a back seat for no good reason.