Security Versus Privacy in an I.D. Card

It is times like these when we must ask ourselves how much freedom we are willing to give up in the name of public safety. In the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the Pentagon and the World Trade Center, top lawmakers are considering numerous ways to curb future terrorist plots against the United States. Though these proposals are well-intentioned, many of them threaten our civil rights.

The proposed measures include strengthening the government’s power to wiretap telephones and to conduct search and seizure operations, as well as a proposal that would require everyone in the United States to carry identity cards. These so-called “smart cards” could contain travel logs or even fingerprinting information. Supposedly the government would use these identity cards to track suspected terrorists within the United States.

So what is the problem with national ID cards? Where is the infringement upon our civil liberties?

For centuries Americans have cherished their right to travel unfettered, without the papers or ID cards many police states have required throughout history. A large source of anger for American colonistswas a restriction the British government imposed on travel west beyond the Appalachian Mountains. During the Cold War, Soviet nationals marveled at how Americans could pass from state to state without being stopped for “papers.” Furthermore, the Supreme Court deemed this right to travel freely to be explicit in the Constitution under the 14th Amendment’s “equal protection” clause.

National ID cards containing travel information would abridge this right to travel. What information is appropriate to put on a national identity card? Would we stop at just travel logs, or would we include past criminal records? How about party affiliation? Should we really allow newly appointed Secretary of Homeland Security Thomas J. Ridge ’67 to watch our every move? While in the past such measures have encountered stiff opposition, House Minority Leader Dick Gephardt (D-Mo.) suggested to Fox News that last week’s events changed the nature of the debate. Indeed, terror stricken civil rights activists may have reevaluated their position on national identity cards since Sept. 11.

Although there has been an attack on liberty, we must not suspend liberty throughout the country. More than ever, Americans should hold fast to the rights and privileges for which our forefathers fought. We should proudly stand up to terrorism and demonstrate that the basic principles upon which this country was founded are more important than toppled skyscrapers or downed airplanes.

—STEPHEN W. STROMBERG