National ID Cards
This Op-Ed by Senator Lamar Alexander, Much as I Hate It, We Need a National ID, is a must read for anyone who is interested in this issue. His final paragraph as a teaser:
I still detest the idea of a government ID card. South Africa’s experience is a grim reminder of how such documents can be abused. But I’m afraid this is one of the ways Sept. 11 has changed our lives. Instead of pretending we are not creating national ID cards when we obviously are, Congress should carefully create an effective federal document that helps prevent terrorism — with as much respect for privacy as possible.
Beyond the obvious needs of immigration and protection from terrorists there is a much more prosaic reason for supporting a nation ID card. Identity theft.
I think a very strong Libertarian case can be made that one of the responsibilities of government, in line with providing rule of law and enforcement of consequences, is providing citizens a secure and verifiable means of establishing their identity. A person’s identity is perhaps their most private possession and it seems to me that the Government should provide protection for that possession.
Here’s one thing that bugs me about the national I.D. card argument, and about arguments swirling around the controversy about requiring states to prove that people with driver’s licenses are not illegal immigrants. I assume (based on a lot that I have read) that Al-Qaeda operatives have the bare minimum competence to fake ID’s. If we’re up against an enemy that can’t do that, there’s really no danger of terrorism. Given that there can be fakes, I think this issue is a red herring in the war on terror.