Mr. Brito may be right that such a restricted national ID card might be legal but so what? The skill these terrorists used in creating their identities shows that they would not likely have been caught even under his suggested system. Another case of reducing liberty with only the appearance of improvement in safety. A bad bargain even if it worked. Also, the breadth of the application of the Interstate Commerce Clause since its growth spurt in the '30s is staggering and very troublesome. I can't find much historical justification for it in the writings of the framers (can anyone on the list?). Its reached the point where almost any economic (and many non-economic) activities come under the ICC. Its become the source of most of Congresss' power and they know it. Only recently has the SC begun to issuing a more narrow interpretation (bully for them), but its still too broad and I find any expansion under it to be resisted wherever possible. The creation of yet another, even more intrusive, federal data base which (if recent events serve as an example) can be abused by those in authority is to be avoided at all cost. If the U.S. Consulates and INS had not fumbled the ball on admitting and tracking those legally admitted it might have raised the bar considerably on domestic terrorism from these sources. But now a heard of zombies are roaming free among us and we may never know the true extent to which we were exposed by those inept guardians of our safety. At 12:56 AM 9/25/2001 -0700, you wrote:
Sept. 22, 2001, 6:54PM
Idea of national identification card worth another look By DAGOBERT L. BRITO
There have been several suggestions by responsible parties in the past few days that the United States adopt a national identification card program. The idea of a national identification card is one that most Americans find distasteful. An internal passport carries with it connotations of Adolf Hitler's Germany and Big Brother. However, the time has come to reevaluate the costs and benefits of such a card. Recent developments require more security precautions, and a national identification card is one of the less intrusive ways of providing such protection.
steve