Supreme Court Upholds Identification Law
Decision in Hiibel v. Sixth Judicial District of Nevada released
today
In a close decision released today, the United States Supreme Court has
upheld a Nevada law that requires a person lawfully stopped by a police
officer who has reasonable suspicion that the person has or will commit a
crime to identify himself to the officer. In the case Hiibel v. Sixth
Judicial District Court of Nevada, Defendant Larry Hiibel, who was
questioned by a police officer investigating a report of an assault on a
woman, challenged this law claiming that the ID requirement constituted an
illegal seizure and violated his Fifth Amendment privilege against
self-incrimination.
The Court’s 5-4 majority opinion rejected these claims stating, “Asking
questions is an essential part of police investigations. In the ordinary
course a police officer is free to ask a person for identification without
implicating the Fourth Amendment.” Later in the opinion, the Court said,
“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.”
The Court’s decision utilized arguments introduced in an amicus curiae
brief by the Sacramento-based Criminal Justice Legal Foundation which
emphasized that when an officer has a reasonable suspicion that a crime has
been committed, a request for identification of the suspect is essential to
the investigation and not a violation of the Constitution.
“This was not an unjustified demand of ‘Your papers please’ by an officer
of a totalitarian regime,” said Charles Hobson, who authored the Foundation’s
brief. “It was a reasonable request by a Sheriff’s Deputy who had been called
to the scene of a suspected crime. Had the Court agreed with the defendant’s
claims in this case, the resulting decision would have tied the hands of
police,” he added.
The case arose from a citizen complaint to the Humboldt County (Nevada)
Sheriff’s Department that someone was hitting a female passenger in a truck.
Sheriff’s Deputy Lee Dove responded to the call and spoke to the concerned
citizen who pointed out the truck. Dove went to talk to defendant Hiibel, who
was standing outside of the truck. When Deputy Dove asked Hiibel to identify
himself, Hiibel absolutely refused and even challenged Dove to take him to
jail. Under Nevada law, a person stopped by a police officer under a
reasonable suspicion standard “shall identify himself”. After 11 denied
requests for identification, Dove finally arrested Hiibel, who was
subsequently convicted of resisting an officer.
Before the U. S. Supreme Court, Hiibel alleged violations of both his
Fourth Amendment privacy rights and Fifth Amendment privilege against
self-incrimination. The CJLF brief argued that the demands of modern society
minimize an individual’s interest in the privacy of his or her identity. For
example, maintaining proof of ID is essential to anyone who works, drives,
receives government benefits, or seeks credit. In fact, most people carry
some form of identification with them when in public. Because there is little
privacy interest in identity and compliance is easy and routine, Nevada’s
identification requirement does not burden an individual to any
constitutionally significant degree. The Supreme Court has long held that
police cannot randomly stop people on the street and compel them to provide
identification. The Nevada law does not contradict this rule since it only
applies when an officer has reasonable suspicion that a person has committed
or will commit a crime. The Foundation also argued that an officer’s request
for identification is not comparable to asking a person to admit guilt to a
crime and therefore is not a Fifth Amendment violation.
“The constant danger of renewed terrorist activity places enormous pressure
on law enforcement to identify suspected terrorists before they strike,” said
Hobson. “This precedent-setting decision to uphold stop-and-identify laws in
virtually every state is vital to public safety.”
Charles Hobson is available for comment at (916) 446-0345.
The Criminal Justice Legal Foundation has helped to win five United States
Supreme Court decisions benefitting public safety during the current term.
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