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The TSA's New $45 Fee to Fly Without ID Is Illegal

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Re: The TSA's New $45 Fee to Fly Without ID Is Illegal

#621

Post by parineum »

Vicinity9635 wrote: post #442
parineum wrote: post #420

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's a branch of government who's job is to write laws, who's job is to interpret laws and one who's job is to enforce laws. Which one are you?

[dead]

You are a person, not the people. I disagree with you on what the Constitution says. Luckily, The Constitution outlines how to resolve that dispute. [0]

> ... Abraham Lincoln November 19, 1863

Abraham Lincoln was four score and seven years late to the founding, I'm not sure what his opinion has to do with it.

[0]https://constitutioncenter.org/the-constitution/articles/art...

Re: The TSA's New $45 Fee to Fly Without ID Is Illegal

#622

Post by Propelloni »

expedition32 wrote: post #555
pjc50 wrote: post #501

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem with allowing "feels unsafe" to drive policy is that you get this: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46866201 ; a lot of Americans (and other nationalities) get that "feels unsafe" feeling when they see a visible minority. Or a Muslim. Or someone who isn't a Muslim but (like a Sikh!) is from the same hemisphere as the Middle East. You get one set of people's rights compromised to salve the feelings of…

[flagged]

How about a flight coming out of Bolivia with 200 Dutch tourists on board? Is it more or less risky than a flight coming out of the USA with 200 Donald Trumps on board? Is there a list?

Re: The TSA's New $45 Fee to Fly Without ID Is Illegal

#623

Post by InitialLastName »

mothballed wrote: post #570
rkomorn wrote: post #503

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think they're talking about international travel and not having to go through border control within the Schengen space even though you're traveling to different countries.

I flew once from Iraq to Sweden (in a private capacity). There was zero controls other than stamping the passport, passport control but no customs inspection. No check of bags and no question of what I might have been doing in Iraq or why I would go from there to Sweden. It was shocking. Just welcome to sweden and off to the street. Hopefully they haven't changed. It's nice to see a place still left without the paran…

Border entry at airports is concerned with a) smuggling and b) immigration control. Passport control may have been all you saw but there was almost certainly heavy profiling and background checking going on behind the scenes. If you had matched a more suspicious pattern than "high-power passport without suspicious history flying an unusual route", you likely would have faced more scrutiny.

Re: The TSA's New $45 Fee to Fly Without ID Is Illegal

#624

Post by noduerme »

K0balt wrote: post #517
noduerme wrote: post #332

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a white guy who was caught accidentally carrying a large knife once through security, at the bottom of a carry-on backpack I'd had since high school, I don't think it's in any way essential to use racial or ethnic markers to figure out whether someone is taking something dangerous onto a plane. I didn't even know I was trying to bring a knife onto a plane at a regional airport. There's no reason to think that Sikh…

Welcome to the club. I inadvertently traveled with not one, but two large box cutters in my carryon satchel for at least 20 flights before I discovered them while searching for some swag. I put them in there for a booth setup in Vegas years prior. Sent a completely calm, even sympathetic report to the powers that be, got put on the DNF list for my troubles. Still screened and detained 100 percent of the time, sometim…

So here's me at Burbank:

Officer: Look at this knife. You're trying to take this on the plane?

Me: Holy shit I didn't realize that was in my bag.

Officer: Well do you want it back? Or do you want to fly today?

Me: I don't want it.

Officer: Don't mind if I keep it?

Me: It's all yours.

Re: The TSA's New $45 Fee to Fly Without ID Is Illegal

#625

Post by bloomark »

fransje26 wrote: post #571
xeornet wrote: post #546

About 75% of the time I don't get asked for ID at all when flying within Schengen Europe. I understand technically there isn't any border crossing, but they have absolutely no idea who is actually on the plane. Wild.

That's because you have the right to travel freely between Schengen countries. Asking for an ID or passport when embarking/disembarking would be similar to having an ID check at a border, and would therefore be a border control, i.e. no longer free travel. Of course Schengen countries have the right to temporarily re-enable border checks.

You also have the right to travel freely within the domestic US.

Re: The TSA's New $45 Fee to Fly Without ID Is Illegal

#626

Post by blargthorwars »

uncletscollie wrote: post #593
mothballed wrote: post #583

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would just let the airlines pick if they want TSA screening or not. Customers could buy flights with whatever security level they want. If you fly intrastate in Alaska there is no screening on commercial flights (it seems TSA must not be required on non-interstate flights). Technically it's still illegal to bring a gun but no one would know one way or the other. It really didn't bother me that there was no security…

>small regional airline in the South, where if you checked a gun, the pilot just gives it back to the passenger... If the passenger is white. They would call the cops on anyone else. The state dept of terrorism would get involved if they were 1/1000 middle eastern.

White people and passenger planes tend to get along well. They invent them.

Re: The TSA's New $45 Fee to Fly Without ID Is Illegal

#627

Post by ehasbrouck »

Fhch6HQ wrote: post #242
ehasbrouck wrote: post #202

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As of the imposition of start of this new fee/fine, about 200,000 people a day fly without ID or without REAL-ID: https://papersplease.org/wp/2025/05/28/200000-people-a-day-f... - At $45 a pop, that would bring in >$3B a year. "A billion here, a billion there, and pretty soon you're talking about real money."

That's a really disappointing source. The headline is '200,000 people a day fly without REAL-ID', which starts out quite interesting. It then goes on to explain that the TSA has reported 93% of traveler's complied with REAL ID, citing a TSA blog from a week prior which in fact states the same. They then take this and couple it with a single day, which they state was the busiest travel day of the Memorial Day weekend,…

The most recent press release from the TSA claims that it's now 6% of passengers not showing ID or not showing REAL ID: https://www.tsa.gov/news/press/releases/2025/12/01/tsa-intro... So down only slightly since May 2025 when they started "enforcing" a "requirement" to show REAL-ID.

Re: The TSA's New $45 Fee to Fly Without ID Is Illegal

#628

Post by tag2103 »

0x457 wrote: post #179
paxys wrote: post #23

It's hilarious how transparent a money grab this entire thing is. "You need to show a Real ID for security, otherwise how do we know you won't hijack the plane?" "Well I don't have a Real ID." "Ok then, give us $45 and you can go through." So it was never about security at all then, was it? And don't get me started with all the paid express security lanes. Because of course only poor people can weaponize shoes and la…

Real ID is/was needed because every state has different requirements to get one. The whole debate is hilarious, you need one or two extra documents to get RealID. The exact same amount of time and trips to DMV.

Major points are also missed. The fee is enabled at the federal law level: 49 U.S.C. § 114 & 49 U.S.C. § 44901

Re: The TSA's New $45 Fee to Fly Without ID Is Illegal

#629

Post by ryanscio »

wpm wrote: post #171
ryanscio wrote: post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Serious question: why? Most people I know who object to full-body millimeter-wave scanners either do so on pseudoscientific health claims, or “philosophical” anti-scanner objections that are structurally the same genre as sovereign-citizen or First-Amendment-auditor thinking.

I should not need to show an anonymous TSA agent my genitals, even if they are in black and white on some monitor theyre viewing in some back room, to get on a plane.

I'd agree with this, but TSA scanners do not show anatomical details.

Re: The TSA's New $45 Fee to Fly Without ID Is Illegal

#630

Post by NoSalt »

This has to make you wonder if the entire Security Theater is for security or money. I mean, if the RealID is supposed to increase security, then how does plopping $45.00 down help security? I'm pretty sure most terrorists can afford that. There is also the possibility that the RealID is simply another way the government is using to keep tabs on us 24/7/365.
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