On January 14, the 11th circuit agreed with a U.S. District Court that Georgia may require voters at the polls to show a government photo-ID. Common Cause v Billups, 07-14664.

The decision, written by Judge William Pryor (who was once Alabama’s Attorney General) seems to contain a factual error in the first paragraph. It says, “Before an adult passenger can board an airplane for a commercial flight in the United States, the passenger must present to a federal official an identification card with a photograph of the passenger.” Actually, passengers without such photo ID can still fly if they consent to an extra-thorough search, and if they can orally establish their identity. See this TSA policy. Apparently, TSA uses its computers to log onto the credit record of someone who doesn’t have photo ID. Then the TSA employee quizzes the person without ID to see if he or she can answer questions; the answers can be verified via the on-line credit report.