... they can't really test how effective the system is ...
Effective at what? Preventing people from traveling? The whole exercise ignores the question of whether the Executive Branch has the power to make a list of citizens (or lawfully admitted non-citizens) and refuse those people their constitutional right to travel in the United States. Doesn't matter whether there's 1, 19, 20,000, or 100,000 people on the list. The problem is the same: No court has judged these people. They have not been convicted of any crime. They have not been arrested. There is no warrant out for them. They all have civil rights. When they walk into an airport, there is nothing in how they look that gives reason to suspect them. They have every right to travel throughout this country. They have every right to refuse a government demand that they identify themselves. So why are armed goons keeping them off airplanes, trains, buses, and ships? Because the US constitution is like the USSR constitution -- nicely written, but unenforced? Because the public is too afraid of the government, or the terrorists, or Emmanuel Goldstein, or the boogie-man, to assert the rights their ancestors died to protect? John (under regional arrest) Gilmore PS: Oral argument in Gilmore v. Ashcroft will be coming up in the Ninth Circuit this winter. http://papersplease.org/gilmore