Cloak and Dagger Laws

The 9th Circuit issued a disturbing opinion today. It was not disturbing because it affirmed that it was constitutional to require airplane passengers to present identification to board airplanes. It was disturbing because material portions of its ruling relied upon the reader trusting the judge's secret review of the binding legal order in question without actually telling us what that order said. This is not a secret document, it is a secret government regulation, and the parts that were secret were necessary to the court's holding. Transparency is far better proof against the forces that would undermine our society than secrecy. A nation with secret laws is not a nation of laws at all.