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Do you need ID to read the REAL-ID rules?

[“The welcoming, friendly and visually pleasing appearance” of the TSA’s headquarters at 6595 Springfield Center Drive, Springfield, VA.] We spent most of a day last week outside the headquarters of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), trying and failing to find out what the rules are for the TSA’s new digital-ID scheme. What we did learn is that, by TSA policy and practice, you can’t read the REAL-ID rules, get to the TSA’s front door, or talk to any TSA staff unless you already have ID, bring it with you, and show it to the private guards outside the TSA’s gates.

Instead, thousands of pages of documents from private third parties were incorporated by reference into the TSA’s rules, giving them the force of law, on the basis of false and fraudulent claims — the falsehood of which was easy for anyone who checked to verify — that they were “reasonably accessible” to affected individuals. In our comments on the false and fraudulent claim in the NPRM that these documents were available for inspection at some unspecified DHS facility, we specifically raised the potential problem of access or entry without ID: “Access procedures are especially critical with respect to this proposed rule because ‘the class of persons affected’ – the relevant category pursuant to 1 CFR § 51.7(3), as quoted above – obviously includes individuals who do not have ID deemed compliant with the REAL-ID Act.

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