A Thursday letter writer is not correct in her statement that ID is required to be carried at all times.
The U.S. Supreme Court has consistently said that, under the Fourth Amendment’s provisions against “unreasonable search and seizure,” we do not require ID to be carried in the normal course of a person’s affairs and activities. Police need “reasonable suspicion” and/or “probable cause” to go further than to ask a person to identify themselves by name.
That identification process does not entail showing an ID — there was a case in L.A. of a black man walking at night that was adjudicated to the Supreme Court that clarified that.
The “special group of people” that the writer refers to is the entire population of the United States, and includes herself.
Floyd Rogers
Renton
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