PeterUK,

I believe there is an “ID on demand” case working its way up the court system out in TX or AZ. A police officer demanded ID from somebody with no possible probably cause. IIRC the guy had his pickemup pulled over to the side of some rural road and was outside the vehicle doing whatever and the cop asked for his ID. The guy refused, was arrested, now there’s a court case (or maybe the guy is suing).

I’m pretty sure we’d manage to maintain “probably cause” here. Obviously “probably cause” has a great deal of built in flexibility and is, ummm, pretty context-rich. If there is no need to show and ID and there is no good reason to demand one from you, then you don’t need to produce one just because some policemen was feeling all studly. But this has nothing to do with a national ID. If they can demand an ID they can demand ID whether its national or nothing more reliable than a state DL.

Maybe I’m just really gullible, but I just can’t imagine the police running around rousting people randomly for no good reason on any national scale (unless we let things really go to hell in a handbasket – I love that cliche even though it makes no sense whatsoever). We have way too many people and way too few cops for that and most of our cops keep live a few blocks away and have kids in the same schools and attend the same churches… In major metro areas the police are a “force”, but everywhere else their something closer to neighbors who happen to be cops.