Jim Harper has a good succinct piece up today on the Cato Daily Commentary about the worthlessness of a National ID Card.

It’s true that surveillance makes law-abiding people easier for authorities to control. People required to show ID could, for instance, be run against databases of outstanding fines and tax delinquencies at local shopping malls. But identification gives the government no similar control over terrorists and sophisticated criminals - the people we’re trying to stop with these ID checks.

Criminals always find ways around the law. That is the definition of what they do. Besides making government more of a nuisance in honest citizens’ lives, a National ID would not tell authorities in advance who will commit crimes.

Examples are legion in terrorism, and routine in crime, of people with no history of wrongdoing being the ones who act. For the 9/11 attacks, Al Qaeda selected operatives without records of involvement in terrorism.

The whole piece is a quick read and fairly convincing, though it is only a fraction of the larger issue.

technorati tags: nationalid, security, privacy, policy