Supreme Court hears arguments in Hiibel anonymity case [priv]

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/22/politics/22CND-SCOT.html?ex=1080622800&en=d465b07e1cd628ee&ei=5062&partner=GOOGLE

Supreme Court to Decide Mandatory Identification Case
By LINDA GREENHOUSE

WASHINGTON, March 22 — A Nevada rancher's refusal four years ago to tell
a deputy sheriff his name led to a Supreme Court argument today on a
question that, surprisingly, the justices have never resolved: whether
people can be required to identify themselves to the police when the
police have some basis for suspicion but lack the probable cause
necessary for an actual arrest.

The answer, in a case that has drawn intense interest from those who
fear increased government intrusion on personal privacy, appeared elusive.

"A name itself is a neutral fact" that is neither incriminating nor an
undue invasion of privacy, Conrad Hafen, Nevada's senior deputy attorney
general, told the court in defense of a state statute that requires
people to identify themselves to the police if stopped "under
circumstances which reasonably indicate that the person has committed,
is committing or is about to commit a crime."

Justice David H. Souter told Mr. Hafen, "It's a neutral fact that I'm
wearing a pinstripe suit." But, he added, if someone who had just robbed
a bank was reported to be wearing a pinstripe suit, that fact, if
reported to the police, might no longer be so neutral.

The Bush administration joined the state in defending the statute.

Lawyers for Larry D. Hiibel , who was appealing his conviction for
violating the Nevada law, raised two constitutional challenges to the
identification requirement: that it amounts to an illegal search under
the Fourth Amendment, and that it compels self-incrimination in
violation of the Fifth Amendment.

The Nevada Supreme Court upheld Mr. Hiibel's conviction, a misdemeanor,
and rejected his constitutional challenge to the state law. Standing by
the side of his pick-up truck on a rural road, he had been approached by
a sheriff's deputy who was investigating a passing motorist's report
that a man in the truck had been hitting a woman. The woman in the
passenger compartment was Mr. Hiibel's adult daughter.

The deputy sheriff, Lee Dove, asked Mr. Hiibel 11 times for
identification. Mr. Hiibel, saying he had done nothing wrong, refused to
give his name and challenged Mr. Dove to arrest him. Eventually, the
deputy complied. A videotape of the incident, captured by a camera in
the squad car, is on Mr. Hiibel's Web side, www.hiibel.com. Mr. Hiibel
was never charged with any criminal offense beyond his refusal to
identify himself.
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