Your rights as a U.S. citizen
Travel and ID requirements
- “TSA ConfirmID” and the illegal $45 fee for flying without REAL-ID
- REAL-ID FAQ: TSA procedures for flying without REAL-ID or with no ID
- US passports and freedom of international travel
- Buses, trains, and US domestic travel without ID
- City ID and the right to travel
- Fact-checking the FAQs on REAL-ID and ID to fly
- What will the future bring for ID demands?
Surveillance and control of travelers
- “Freedom to Travel Act of 2021” (H.R. 6030 in the 117th Congress) (bill text)
- Who’s on the no-fly list? Now we know.
- FAQ: No-fly lists and no-fly decisions
- What’s happening with facial recognition at airports? (video, slides)
- Government surveillance and control of air travelers (video, slides)
- Secure Flight FAQ
- FAQ: U.S. government monitoring of social media
- FAQ: Does an airline pilot have the right to refuse to let you fly?
- FAQ: Your rights at the airport
- FAQ: Searches at airports and U.S. borders
- Tips for international travel to or from the US with a cellphone
- How to get a refund if you aren’t allowed to fly
- How To Request Your Own Travel Records (includes forms, instructions, and examples of DHS records)
White Papers, Research Reports, and Briefings
- Identification as the enabler of ID-based surveillance and control (December 16, 2024) (Slides)
- What Is To Be Done About the TSA? (white paper, November 17, 2010) (PDF)
- Proposed Agenda on the Right to Travel (Submitted to the House Committee on Homeland Security Roundtable: “A Path Forward: Constitutional Protections in Homeland Security”, Washington, DC, December 3, 2008) (PDF)
- Homeland Security’s Data Vacuum Cleaner in Action: an investigation of the Automated Targeting System by the Identity Project, September 19, 2007 (More)
- Government Surveillance of Travelers (slides and video from a presentation at the Cato Institute and on C-SPAN, April 2, 2013; includes annotated examples of records from the DHS Automated Targeting System)
- The status of the REAL-ID Act of 2005 after 10 years (presentation at the Cato Institute, May 19, 2015; more)
- How the REAL-ID Act is creating a national ID database (February 11, 2016)
- National REAL-ID database replicates problems with FBI rap sheets (June 30, 2016)
- Yes, you can fly without ID (April 13, 2017)
- Secret Law and the Threat to Democratic and Accountable Government (written testimony submitted for a hearing before the Subcommittee on the Constitution of the Senate Judiciary Committee, April 30, 2008)
(See also our submissions and testimony in policy consultations and rulemaking.)