91
votes
On what legal basis did the UK remove the 'European Union' from its passport?
Both the Burgundy color and the words 'European Union' are recommended as part of passports issued by member states, but neither are compulsory.
As such, the legal basis of the UK's decision is: ...
- 1,743
90
votes
Accepted
Do poor people, people of color, and elderly have difficulty in obtaining ID in the US?
Do poor people, people of color, and elderly have difficulty in obtaining ID?
Yes.
For example, here are some facts (citations to supporting authorities are found at this link) (the omission of ...
- 85.5k
61
votes
Accepted
On what legal basis did the UK remove the 'European Union' from its passport?
In short: putting it on to begin with is optional.
Quoting a European parliament answer to a similar question (emphasis mine):
What is commonly called an ‘EU passport’ is in fact a national passport ...
- 30.8k
49
votes
Accepted
Why do identification documents have expiration dates?
Many identity documents contain pictures. These pictures will not be very useful after several decades. German identity cards are valid for 10 years if issued after the 24th birthday, but only for 6 ...
- 113k
47
votes
Accepted
Why don't some governments trust people when they tell them they live at a particular address?
Having the wrong address in a government database could allow many types of fraud, from taxes to welfare. Imagine you tell the Austrians that you live in Slovakia, and the Slovaks that you live in ...
- 113k
46
votes
Accepted
What makes "Voter ID laws" so controversial in the US?
There are many reasons that a voter ID requirement is controversial. This is just a list of some arguments or concerns regarding voter ID laws, there is no attempt to determine the reasonableness of ...
- 23.9k
41
votes
Accepted
Why is there no push towards an American ID card?
I know many Americans are skeptical of their government being responsible enough to handle their data, but they probably already have some data over their citizens (how else would the states figure ...
- 15.8k
38
votes
Why do identification documents have expiration dates?
This is a simple countermeasure against identity theft, falsified documents, and fraud more generally put. Someone who successfully falsifies a document is whatever the document says they are until ...
- 73.6k
35
votes
What makes "Voter ID laws" so controversial in the US?
The controversy isn't about the laws themselves. The heart of the matter is partisan concerns and attacking the 'intentions' of those on the other side.
The leading arguments for ID's come from the ...
- 10.2k
35
votes
Is there a country or state which issues gender free ID cards?
The German identity card doesn't have gender information. It is neither in the human readable part of the card, and in the machine readable code, the gender character is "<" for "...
- 124k
29
votes
What makes "Voter ID laws" so controversial in the US?
Your confusion is probably because the problem is not as straight-forward as it seems.
"Requiring an ID" - This was never about requiring an ID. This is about requiring a very narrow group of ...
- 21k
27
votes
Accepted
Why did HWR Wade write that passports have "no status or legal effect at common law whatever"?
Wade writes that a passport
is simply an administrative document. On its face it is an imperious
request from the Foreign Secretary that all whom it may concern shall
allow the bearer to pass ...
CDJB♦
- 108k
25
votes
Accepted
Is there a country or state which issues gender free ID cards?
A few examples:
The Iranian national identity card does not record gender or sex, and must be applied for by all citizens aged 15 and over. The Iranian identity booklet, does contain gender ...
CDJB♦
- 108k
22
votes
Why don't some governments trust people when they tell them they live at a particular address?
There are tons of reasons for this. Since you said any government is welcome, my examples will mostly be in the U.S. where I am.
Identification
I'm not familiar with how it's used in Slovakia, but, in ...
- 8,299
22
votes
Accepted
Is the EU Border Guard Agency able to tell Russian passports issued in Ukraine or Georgia from the legitimate ones?
It does not matter.
While I am not privy to the technical details of passport processing, my guess is that the answer to your stated question is 'NO'. After all, we are not talking about counterfeits ...
- 32.5k
21
votes
Did the FBI seize former US president's current passport in the Mar-a-Lago raid? If so, did they return it? If so, when?
Yes, the passports were located in a drawer where classified documents were stored and taken under the terms of the search warrant.
About a week after the search, investigators contacted Trump's ...
- 3,939
18
votes
Why is there no push towards an American ID card?
The U.S. is closer than you might think to this. If the For The People Act passes (and that's a huge 'if'), it'll likely include a national ID requirement. For the reasons you call out, this is ...
- 19.2k
16
votes
Accepted
Why list religion on an ID card?
One country that used to have the religion on its national ID card until quite recently (the law changed in 2000, new ID cards without religion were issued from 2005 on) is Greece. So, does this ...
- 1,712
15
votes
Why don't some governments trust people when they tell them they live at a particular address?
If the government only wants an address to post the document to, they won't be asking for this kind of evidence. However, your address, and history of addresses, is part of your identity, and so ...
- 124k
15
votes
What is the purpose of listing sex on an identification card?
There is no absolute reason why sex has to be listed on an identity document.
The fields that are sometimes found on identity documents are those that most people can easily give, don't frequently ...
- 124k
13
votes
What makes "Voter ID laws" so controversial in the US?
There are several other excellent answers here, but let me try to boil it down:
1. Voting is a constitutional right.
This is the central point, and one I didn't see mentioned in other answers. You can'...
- 6,590
13
votes
Why do identification documents have expiration dates?
A simple reason is because we age. Most of the identity documents have some form of photo on them and as you age you are going to look less and less like the person in the picture. One of the simple ...
- 18.1k
13
votes
Why is there no push towards an American ID card?
In general, there is no push to make existing IDs more available because doing so would defeat the IDs' purpose as a tool of voter suppression.
For example, the report summarized in the Harvard Law ...
- 18.4k
13
votes
Do poor people, people of color, and elderly have difficulty in obtaining ID in the US?
It's important to distinguish here between ID in general and ID that specifically meets a state's requirements for voting, especially when the state has designed the details of these restrictions to ...
- 2,618
13
votes
What rights do I have with regards to legal identity?
why should I not be able to have two legal identities, if I wish to, and for the government to never know that they are linked to the same person?
In a nut shell, because if you break the law under ...
- 2,782
12
votes
Is there a country or state which issues gender free ID cards?
Belgium will begin the implementation of ungendered identity card in 2022.
- 121
11
votes
Why do identification documents have expiration dates?
Consider an identification document that doesn't expire, issued to someone around the person's 18th birthday. Now imagine that 70 or 80 years have passed. How easy or difficult will it be to ...
- 18.4k
11
votes
Why is there no push towards an American ID card?
First of all, there are plenty of examples of policies that work well in Europe and that seem promising for solving problems in the US, where there is not much of an appetite in the US to test them ...
- 14.1k
10
votes
Does it cost $25 to obtain a "free" Voter ID in any state?
It can cost a lot more than $25 even to get a "free" voter ID.
Based on a spelling or transcription error decades ago, this man paid hundreds of dollars to try and have the required documentation for ...
- 21k
10
votes
Is there a country or state which issues gender free ID cards?
Mexican voter IDs became optionally ungendered in 2019. Instead of assuming, they explicitly ask if you want the card to state the gender. Voter IDs are issued to people 18 years or older, and are the ...
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