WWII era folks got the reference to "You haff papers? You haff relatives in ze old country, perhaps?" The Nazi Secret Police terrorized innocent citizens into compliance with such demands and implied threats.
Fortunately that can't happen here, right?
Or can it?
See how an American woman who refused to show her i.d. papers was arrested by police for insisting on the rights most of us take for granted, here.
With thanks to Prof. J. Harris, Dep't of Spirits, U. of Life, OJ's, Taylor Street, San Francisco, CA, for the good tip.
Note that in the 2004 case of Hiibel v. Nevada Court, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld a conviction under a Nevada statute making it a misdemeanor for a person detained under suspicious circumstances to refuse to identify himself. This is different from the case of the woman on the bus, where the circumstances were not suspicious. The officer was, but not the circumstances. We pay cops to be suspicious, but not to be paranoid, I think.
Airport traveler John Gilmore has sued to protest having to produce his identification papers at airports. He wears a button that says "Suspected Terrorist" to make the point that all of us who fly are. Requests at airports are searches he maintains. The government calls them brief administrative detentions not subject to the Fourth Amendment individualized suspicion warrant requirement. By what authority the traveler wishes to know. Airport security, he is told, and the rules are kept secret to thwart terrorists. The argument goes 'round and 'round. The traveler has his attorney sign him into the federal building to avoid having to produce identification. America isn't Nazi Germany in Mr. Gilmore's mind. The Recorder reports on it here; see the report below: