ID cards+law history;

[Declan McCullagh]

I've written a bit about "national ID card" proposals. This link
may eventually work:

http://search.hotwired.com/search97/s97.vts?Action=FilterSearch&Filter=docs_filter.hts&ResultTemplate=news.hts&Collection=news&QueryMode=Internet&Query=%22national%20id%22%20mccullagh

-Declan


On Sun, Sep 23, 2001 at 10:08:24PM -0700, Xeni Jardin wrote:
> > I fear it is naive to
> > imagine that case law and legal precedent can combat the
> > legislative onslaught to come.
> 
> All bets are definitely off. IANAL, but what seems most relevant to the
> discussion of "national ID cards" from the earlier 1983 decision was the
> court's affirmation that citizens shouldn't be subject to arrest for not
> displaying ID to law enforcement on demand. As far as I can see, the
> judgement doesn't restrict whether or not a law enforcement officer can
> *ask* for ID, just says that a citizen shouldn't be presumed guilty of
> some crime for not displaying it.
> 
> During los anos Clinton, there was some talk of implementing a national ID
> card system as part of his healthcare proposal, if memory serves -- and
> that idea tanked. Offhand, I'm not aware of other instances in US history
> when a national ID card system has been proposed + debated in the name of
> national security... surely this must have come up before at some point...
> 
> XJ