Secret laws

In My Humble Opinion
1

I was listening to a story on NPR yesterday about airport security. They interviewed a guy who protests the need to have a government-issued photo ID. Apparently one doesn’t need photo ID to fly. The guy said that if he tells the security people he won’t show him his ID as a protest, he’s hassled. If he says he lost his wallet, there is little problem. And he often gets through the checkpoint faster, because they take him to the front of the line. Even though they search him thoroughly, it takes less time than standing in line.

The thing is that NPR could not get any officials to tell them whether the law says one needs to carry ID. Why? Because the laws are secret. They mentioned that Emporer Caligula famously posted laws in a temple – in very small print, and very high so that people could not read them. If someone broke a law they didn’t know existed, he’d ‘play “gotcha”’, according to the NPR reporter.

So how do you feel about ‘secret laws’? I think they’re wrong and anti-American. It is said ‘Ignorance of the law is no excuse’. But what if one isn’t allowed to know what the laws are?

2

I’m sure a lawyer will come along soon, and give decent citations, but (at least in English law) a secret law is not a law. It has to be published so that any one can read it, and it the state cannot prove that it has been published, then it’s not binding.

But the problem with your example may be that we have a policy rather than a law. The law may give a general discretion to TSA staff, and they have an unspoken policy to hassle travellers who don’t show ID as a protest.

In addition, they may argue that they are not punishing the traveller without ID, because holding a person up for lengthy inspection is not a punishment like a fine or a prison term. So it may be harder to get a court to rule on the issue.

3

You don’t have to show ID, and they don’t have to let you fly, either.

4

The NPR reporter said that no official would say whether requiring an ID is a law or not, on security grounds.

5

That guy had a great quote in that story, something like “Secret laws are the instruments of tyranny”. I put it up at my desk.

One of my favorite secret laws is the internet policy at work. Corportate mandates say that we’re not supposed to use it for anything other than business. But our local manager says that “personal use should be kept to a minimum”, and that we should “use good judgement, don’t overdo it.” I think that they keep it vague on purpose, just in case they ever want to fire anyone.