Have you ever wondered why you need a Government-issued ID to board an airplane? It started well before 9/11, but why? John Gilmore sued the Government to find out. The Department of Justice's response? They won't tell. It's a secret.

The Justice Department has asked an appellate court to keep its arguments secret for a case in which privacy advocate John Gilmore is challenging federal requirements to show identification before boarding an airplane. A federal statute and other regulations "prohibit the disclosure of sensitive security information, and that is precisely what is alleged to be at issue here," the government said in court papers filed Friday with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit. Disclosing the restricted information "would be detrimental to the security of transportation," the government wrote.

Gilmore's response:

We're dealing with the government's review of a secret law that now they want a secret judicial review for," one of Gilmore's attorneys, James Harrison, said in a telephone interview Sunday. "This administration's use of a secret law is more dangerous to the security of the nation than any external threat."

Gilmore, a privacy advocate who is co-founder of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, alleges that the ID requirement "was vague and ineffective and violated his constitutional protections against illegal searches and seizures." His case was dismissed is now in the appeals courts.

[link via Rachel at Alternet.]