Your papers, please: ID demands DOA?

• Author: Doherty, Brian

THE SUPREME Court is once again considering the nuances of when it's OK to arrest an American citizen simply for refusing to show a cop an ID.

The case, Hiibel v. Sixth Judicial District Court of Nevada, involves a Nevada man, Larry Hiibel, who was approached by an officer on the suspicion, generated by a phone tip, that he had struck a woman in his parked truck. Hiibel refused to show his ID and was arrested under a Nevada statute that says an officer may detain anyone he reasonably thinks has committed, is committing, or is about to commit a crime, and that "any person so detained shall identify himself."

Circuit courts have differed on whether mere refusal to identify oneself can be considered a criminal act. Various parts of past Supreme Court cases lean toward Hiibel's side of the argument, but it's not clear whether he'll prevail.

In an age of multiplying linked databases in the hands of police, such as the Multistate Anti-Terrorism...