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Civil liberties and the MBTA
(Carol Rose | June 7, 2004)
REPORTS THAT the MBTA is implementing a first-in-the-nation plan to stop subway passengers for random identification checks and to question them about their activities at T-stops should alarm anyone who worries about civil liberties. Having to carry and produce identification has historically been a method of control. In 19th century America, the requirement of carrying identity documents was for the most part limited to slaves and Asian immigrants. More recently, we have the example of identification papers in Nazi Germany and the infamous pass system used to control the movements of black South Africans. "Your papers, please," is a phrase that is alien to a free society. More than that, it should worry anyone who cares about effective security in an age of terrorism. Random stops and ID checks have never been shown to prevent terrorism, either here or abroad. The MBTA plan is pretend security. Under the Fourth Amendment, you have a right to be free from unconstitutional searches and seizures. In practice, however, police officers are always free to approach you on the street, at the airport, at the T, and ask for identification -- without reasonable suspicion of wrongdoing or probable cause. You, however, have a constitutionally protected right to refuse to show any ID. You can just say no. We do not require people to carry identification, and the police have no authority to demand its production. Even when a police officer has reason to suspect that a person may be involved in something illegal and is authorized to stop him on the street for purposes of questioning to determine whether there is "probable cause" for an arrest, there is no obligation to produce identification. But that may soon change. Allowing sweeping identification checks would substantially increase the government's power in ways that we may come to regret. But as an antiterrorism tool, it puts us on the wrong track.

posted by A Curmudgeon 6:17 PM