I'm smarter than the Supreme Court?

[nancylebov]

The decision is at Papersplease.org.

Look, guys, these statements cannot both be true at the same time.

"Obtaining a suspect's name in the course of a Terry stop serves important government interests.

Answering a request to disclose a name is likely to be so insignificant in the scheme of things as to be incriminating only in unusual circumstances."

Furthermore, surely the suspect is qualified to judge when giving their name is likely to be incriminating, and that's precisely the unusual circumstance in which the Fifth Amendment says they can't be required to give it.

Comments

[redaxe.livejournal.com]

I haven't read the decision, but wonder whether it specifies that a person must give their CORRECT name to the police, or simply to identify themselves by name. Of course, providing a wrong name opens one up to charges of fraud, identity theft (if the name is of a real person), or worse. Which begs the question of whether the smartest criminals won't have "clean" identities set up in any event, and especially post this ruling.