Papers, Please!

The new UK Identity and Passport Service will publish an action plan for its RFID national biometric ID card scheme next month, and procurement will start next summer. ZDNet story, MK News.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Blair spoke in support of mandatory ID cards, while the Tory opposition party pledged to abolish ID cards. The No2ID opposition organization is finding and opposing the new interrogation centres being created to administer the scheme. They also have some fine T-shirts and stickers.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation’s FLAG project has sued DHS after it stonewalled their FOIA request for details on the two year old US/EU agreement to violate the privacy of European and American travelers. Here’s EFF’s press release and their legal complaint. The agreement gives the US Government carte blanche to troll through every European airline’s reservation system. They can look at any passenger’s information that they desire, at any time, with minimal controls over what can be done with the information extracted. This violates EU privacy law.

British opposition leaders are demanding a recall of all RFID-enabled UK passports after the supposedly ultra-secure passports were cloned as part of an investigation by Guardian star reporter Steve Boggan.

In John Gilmore’s request to the Supreme Court to hear his secret law case, yesterday afternoon was a busy time on the east coast. Three Friends of the Court (amicus) briefs were filed on Gilmore’s behalf by the Reporter’s Committee for Freedom of the Press, the Electronic Freedom Foundation, and the Electronic Privacy Information Center. Good reads, all.

Also yesterday, the Feds filed their opposition brief in the case.

• Amicus brief by the Reporter’s Committee for Freedom of the Press: Download PDF (240 KB)
• The EFF’s amicus brief: Download PDF (433 KB)
• Epic’s Amicus brief: Download PDF (321 KB)
• The US government’s response: Download PDF (352 KB)

I received a political hit-piece today from one of the candidates for California Secretary of State. It says:

“When you rent a movie at the video store you have to show ID.
Why shouldn’t you have to show ID to vote in California?

     Secretary of State                             Debra Bowen
  Bruce McPherson wants                              is AGAINST
to require ID at the polls.                    requiring ID at the polls."

In case you had any doubt before, papers please! readers now know who to vote for.

And for Mr. McPherson, a clue: We shouldn’t have to show ID to vote, because some people who have a RIGHT to vote do not have an ID. You can’t take away their right to vote, just because they decline to have an optional ID card.

Clue #2: A mandate that every citizen must obtain an ID and present it to exercise their constitutional rights is, in legalese, a “licensing scheme” for imposing “prior restraint” on those rights. The process for obtaining those IDs is going to have to meet constitutional standards for prior restraints. It doesn’t even come close, today.

Addendum: Mr. McPherson lost the election.