A friend asserts that there is a legal requirement in the US for all adults to carry identification. I’m skeptical. Can anyone enlighten me?
I’ve been here since 1955 and it’s the first I’ve heard of it. It wasn’t mentioned in high school civics class, and it wasn’t mentioned in Driver’s Ed, and basically…I think your friend is full of it. 
It would amount to a national ID system, and I’d be very surprised to find that somebody somewhere had snuck it in when the ACLU wasn’t looking.
And what about all those sitcom plots where somebody finds himself stranded somewhere with no way to prove he is who he says he is? Why don’t the cops arrest him for not having ID?
Agreed, DDG, but I’m hoping one of our legal types will render an opinion citing codes, if any. I’m already quite sure there is no federal/national law, but do any states have a requirement? Counties? Cities? My pal is from New York City, by the way…
Well, ditto on the cities, counties, states. Why aren’t there any sitcom plots involving Butt City where you’re required to carry ID, the way there are sitcom plots about Butt City with its quaint Sunday blue laws?
There is no universal federally-issued photographic identification. Thus, there can be no federal law requiring that individuals carry ID.
Every state issues photographic IDs; none require them, AFAIK.
Most states do require that anyone operating a motor vehicle bear a photographic driver’s license- which is SOP in most nations these days. Perhaps that’s what your friend means.
Americans do not have to carry “papers.” That is a long-standing principle among people who oppose any sort of national ID card. There is also ample legal precedent for the right not to carry identification; even in situations where one must identify oneself to police, one need not possess ID (although one may be required to produce any ID one is carrying, per such laws as the one recently upheld by the Supreme Court).
As of yesterday, however, US police are authorized to require that you verbally identify yourself if it is determined by them that you are engaging in “suspicious behavior.”
I agree with everybody else that there is no legal requirement to carry ID in the USA.
But if you are stopped by police and charged with any minor offense, they will normally take your ID info, issue you a summons to appear in court, and let you go. But if you don’t have ID on you, they will likely take you to jail and hold you there until they can be certain of your identification. Much more hassle!
And, of course, any business you are dealing with may have their own rules. Like they may decline to accept your check or credit card without a picture ID.
Aliens are required to carry ID in the US. Temporary visitors are required to carry their visa or visa-waiver form (which would normally be in ther passport). Permanent residents are required to carry their green card.
(Of course, the enforcement of this law requires police and immigration officers to distinguish US citizens from aliens. How they do this, I don’t know. But if you are a US citizen, and you sound or look foreign, you might want to carry something to prove you re a citizen …)
As of yesterday, any state law that requires that you verbally identify yourself to police if they determine they have a reasonable, articulable suspicion of wrongdoing is clearly constitutional. Yesterday’s decision does not authorize police to do anything that their state laws do not already authorize.
- Rick
We don’t usually run about the local area with my wife’s green card. I’d hate to lose it. Being near a border, the border patrol does do occassional, random checkpoints. I’ve always wondered what would happen if we got stuck in one. There’s no way to prove that she’s not an American, and since Americans don’t have to carry ID, no one has a case. Yeah, it’d be inconvenient, I imagine. Mind you, I’m not talking about crossing borders, just running around here in Michigan.