On a trip? Feds want the details

New York Daily News ^ | 1/04/03

[second_half_recovery]

You're correct, and we need a Soviet-style system of internal passports for the exact same reasons. It would be a minor incovenience.

[angkor]

This doesn't seem to be much different than the customs declaration form you fill out on the way home.

It is radically and grossly different from a customs declaration form.

Customs is able to collect duties in explicit accordance with Article 1, Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution ("The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties... To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations." Asking a person to pay duties is permitted by the Constitution.

Quite differently, there is no provision in any area of the law whatsoever to require innocent American citizens to state their legal and personal movements on a law enforcement document.

Were this "rule" to be applied to one's domestic movements, there would be a huge public outcry and it would be shot down in court within 24 hours.

From the perspective of our rights as Americans, this proposal is not supported by law, precedent, and is a gross violation of the 4th and 5th Amendments.

Finally, it looks as if the USG is going to employ the airlines to enforce this "rule," e.g., no form, no flight.

If it is a preboarding requirement (which looks to be the case here) it is a defacto exit visa. "Mr. & Mrs. Smith, why are you going to Egypt and Kenya?"

Exit visas are used in such tolerant democracies as the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and Indonesia.