Dennis Roddy penned a fantastic article in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette this Sunday that outlines John Gilmore’s protest of federal laws requiring government identification for travelers. An internet and privacy activist and millionaire (thanks to his time at Sun and Cygnus), Gilmore is “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.”

That contrariness prompted Gilmore to carefully plan his run-in with the airline industry and its requirement that passengers present a government-issued identity paper. Booking a flight from Oakland to Washington, DC, Gilmore refused to show his ID and, after an hours-long ordeal, was prevented from boarding his plane. The airline cited a government regulation that is classified “Sensitive Security Information,” bureaucratic-speak for “not for public review.” Gilmore’s argument is first, that this is a “back door” mandate that circumvents the legislative process, and second, that a government ID is a useless security tool in an airline industry with “magnetometers at the gates, guards with security wands, fortified cockpit doors and sky marshals abounding.”

The bottom line, as Gilmore’s lawyer Jim Harrison explains, is that the current regulations under undermine “the ability of the citizens of this country to be able to move about the country, to move about freely, without being subject to laws they can’t see.” Persuasive, for sure, it will be interesting to watch as the protracted legal battle is played out. In the meantime, Gilmore’s actions will hopefully stimulate a much-needed dialogue about this aspect of the give-and-take between privacy and security.