As some of my friends laugh at me for my, cough, somewhat, cough, liberal views, it’s good to see John Gilmore fight back and win a round.

As seen multiple times on Boing-Boing, John Gilmore’s personal fight against the government’s quest to require ID when flying and hide it in a secret law.

The 9th Court of Appeals has rejected (pdf link) the government’s motion to file a secret brief to keep a secret law a secret:

“In a one page order, the Court denied DOJ’s motion asking the Court’s permission to file their arguments in secret, allowing only the judges to read their full brief. A DOJ motion to suspend the briefing schedule was similarly denied.”

John Gilmore is the co-founder of Sun Microsystems, “alt” newsgroups on Usenet, and the EFF with such luminaries as Mitch Kapor (creator of Lotus 1-2-3) and Steve Wozniak (creator of the Apple PC). Still active in technology advocacy, Mr. Gilmore speaks against copy protection, internet encryption, and drug policy reform.