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Americans Must Show Identity Papers, High Court Rules
(Associated Press, June 21, 2004)
The Supreme Court ruled Monday that people do not have a constitutional right to refuse to tell police their names. . . . The 5-4 decision frees the government to arrest and punish people who won't cooperate by revealing their identity. . . . The decision was a defeat for privacy rights advocates who argued that the government could use this power to force people who have done nothing wrong to submit to fingerprinting or divulge more personal information. . . . The justices upheld a Nevada cattle rancher’s misdemeanor conviction. He was arrested after he told a deputy that he didn't have to reveal his name or show an ID during an encounter on a rural road in 2000. . . . The ruling was a follow up to a 1968 decision that said police may briefly detain someone on reasonable suspicion of wrongdoing, without the stronger standard of probable cause, to get more information. Justices said that during such brief detentions, known as Terry stops after the 1968 ruling, people must answer questions about their identities. . . . Justices had been asked to rule that forcing someone to give police their name violated a person’s Fourth Amendment protection from unreasonable searches and the Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.

[COMMENT: Here is another case where the Supreme Court is trashing the Bill of Rights. My advice to recent college graduates who are looking for work is to take your valuable skills to another country. It will not be long now before we will be forced to carry National Identity Cards. The Amerikan Gulag is about to slam the cell door shut on anyone who exercises the rights that so many of our gallant service personnel have given their lives for. This is a very sad day for anyone who loves freedom.]

posted by LoZo 3:06 PM