Amtrak to crackdown on passengers without IDs

[Anonymous]

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20041117/ap_on_re_us/amtrak_id_checks

[Anonymous]

Nothing we don't already get from the airlines...

LC

[dharmon]

Just show them the photo from the milk carton....

[Anonymous]

and what happend if I say no? Do I have right to privacy here? I mean half the time they dont ask for IDs to get the ticket

[AntonioFP45]

Right to privacy?

Cleve, showing photo I.D is not an invasion of privacy. If that's the case than thousands of banks, factories, and public utilities are in trouble as photo I.D is often required by employees as well as visitors.

[railman]

although I don't like showing my ID all the time either; Amtrak is just checking the name on the ticket to the face on the card.

[Anonymous]

Sometime i give a false name then what? What about selling tickets to a therd party?

[gabe]

QUOTE: Originally posted by AntonioFP45

Right to privacy?

Cleve, showing photo I.D is not an invasion of privacy. If that's the case than thousands of banks, factories, and public utilities are in trouble as photo I.D is often required by employees as well as visitors.

Actually, Antonio, there would be no such trouble. Constitutional rights protect you from GOVERNMENTAL INVASIONS not private entities. Non-government entities are not subject to constitutional protections--although there may be statutory protections like Title 7 that may so construe them.

Also, as I recently said in another post, there are circumstances where the production of an ID is considered an invasion of privacy--although this law is now shrinking post-911.

Nonetheless, your ultimate conclusion on this one appears to be right. When you get on an Amtrak train you are effectively contracting with the government to perform a service. The law on this is largely unsettled, but I imagine that if anyone challenges this, courts will rule that you contract away any rights of anonymity while on the train when you purchase the ticket.

Gabe

[Anonymous]

I hate to say this but, The right to privacy will be a thing of the past,If not already.
And you can thank 9/11 for that.
Have you ever heard of the Little Tiny Microchip the Government wants to have installed in our bodies!.............Well...........
There you go!

[trainfan1221]

I can't imagine having to do this just to ride a train, if they go so far as metal detectors then I'm done with them. The showing ID thing might be a necessary inconvenience, but it will probably just take even more time and make trains even later.

[Anonymous]

Id rather have more ID checks than have someone get on board and try to blow up the train or worse!

[daveklepper]

In many parts of the world, yes in democracies, everyone is required to have an ID, with photograph, and one can be stopped by any policeman, anytime, and taken in for questioning, if one doesn't have one. That is one reason USA citizens are advised always to have the American Passport available for inspection at any time. In most of these countries, one feels safer precisely because this law is in effect.