These cards would be connected to a database that has information about every person on it. You would be required to show this card any time someone with the authority asked for it. That person would have access to all of your information including your back transactions. The government never took the time to realize that those cards would not solve anything. If a terrorist living in the country had a clean record, issuing him a card would not send up any red flags. In fact he would be able to avoid the highest levels of judgment because his record was so clean. Our government was ready and willing to violate our right to freedom by making everyone get national identification cards. Privacy advocate Robert Ellis Smith has described the cards as "a license to live." If these cards were issued, a person would not be able to function freely without it. These cards would only be a stepping-stone for our government to violate more of our rights.
President George W. Bush has said that the war on terrorism is a war to preserve freedom. But, in the last year, he and Attorney General John D. Ashcroft have curbed civil liberties ore sharply than any administration in half a century, with little tangible proof that we are the safer for it.
The rights to a public trial, the right of the accused to counsel, and the right of judicial review are just a few of the civil liberties Bush has recently limited. These violated rights have mostly been directed towards individuals who match the religious and ethnic profiles our government has made since the terrorist attacks on September 11th. Within a few days of the attacks, the Bush administration had detained 75 people. By November that number reached almost 1,200. These detainees of Middle Eastern descent were denied lawyers and trials, a clear violation of the due process clause. The due process clause also says a person not accused of a crime has the right to freedom and that a noncitizen not charged with a crime must be released unless there is proof they are a danger to security.