The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette has the story of Millionaire John Gilmore, who won’t show his ID:

John Gilmore’s splendid isolation began July 4, 2002, when, with defiance aforethought, he strolled to the Southwest Airlines counter at Oakland Airport and presented his ticket.

The gate agent asked for his ID.

Gilmore asked her why.

It is the law, she said.

Gilmore asked to see the law.

Nobody could produce a copy. To date, nobody has. The regulation that mandates ID at airports is “Sensitive Security Information.” The law, as it turns out, is unavailable for inspection.

What started out as a weekend trip to Washington became a crawl through the courts in search of an answer to Gilmore’s question: Why?

More…

As happens to the disobedient, Gilmore is grounded. He is rich — he estimates his net worth at $30 million — and cannot fly inside the United States. Nor can he ride Amtrak, rent a room at most major hotels, or easily clear security in the courthouses where his case, Gilmore v. Ashcroft, is to be heard. In a time when more and more people and places demand some form of government-issued identification, John Gilmore offers only his 49-year-old face: a study in stringy hair, high forehead, wire-rimmed glasses, Ho Chi Minh beard and the contrariness for which the dot.com culture is renowned.

Boing Boing notes that Gilmore is “the guy who Sun hired to write their first code, the guy who co-founded EFF.” Smart Mobs links, and Dan Seto wonders:

Regardless of the reasons for asking, the scary thing is the law Mr. Gilmore supposedly violated is secret. So secret not even his lawyers are allowed to see it. Why? How is someone supposed to defend himself in court if you can’t even view, much less challenge the very law he is charged with violating?