Roberts on National ID Card

According to the LA Times, memos written by John Roberts back when he was with the Reagan Administration suggest that he supported a national ID card. What this might portend for the country should he become Chief Justice is obviously difficult to say.

Journalists David G. Savage and Henry Weinstein write:

"On the issue of I.D. cards, he [Roberts] said that worries of a police state in the
offing were badly exaggerated and that those who yearned for personal
privacy were engaged in wishful thinking.

Even if citizens were required to have such a card, it would "not suddenly
mean Constitutional protections would evaporate and you could be arbitrarily
stopped on the street and asked to produce it," he wrote.

"We already have, for all intents and purposes, a national identifier - the
Social Security number.. And I think we can ill afford to cling to symbolism
in the face of the real threat to our social fabric by uncontrolled
immigration," he said."