Excellent points, Karen.
I think only acceptable goal of a national ID card is for all of us to have unique identifiers which cannot be forged. We're actually born with them, whether it's fingerprints, DNA, or some other unique biological characteristic.
Not everyone has their fingerprints in a government database, but many of us do. I had to be fingerprinted when I applied to be admitted to the bar. I remember being fingerprinted as a kid at school - I think it was something the police used to do, come to all the schools and fingerprint the children. So far I haven't noticed any appreciable loss of personal freedom due to the government having my fingerprints on record.
But I question whether the technology we are discussing is as advanced as we seem to be assuming.
Several years ago, I was court-appointed to represent a man who had been in jail for burglary. When he was arrested, he gave an alias, and when he was released, told his probation officer - he had a very long record - that he had told his real name to his court-appointed lawyer, who had not told it to the court. So there was a bar investigation. Despite the fact that the man had been fingerprinted when he was arrested, and despite the fact that he had multiple felony convictions, there was no flag anywhere that he was using false identification. Not only that, but the police were not sure what his name really was, even after learning that he was using a fake name, and having his fingerprints.
I finally told the prosecutor that I had no way of knowing whether this man was telling the truth about anything - as a lawyer my duty of loyalty to my client is superceded by my obligation to prevent a fraud on the court - and that all I knew about him for certain was that he was white, had blue eyes, was 5'10" or so and appeared to be male. |
