Margaret Carlson

The September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on America generated renewed calls for a system in which every U.S. citizen would be required to carry a national ID card. Margaret Carlson contends in the following viewpoint that a national ID card would enable government officials to make better use of the widely dispersed data it keeps on all residents. Carlson believes that unlike credit card companies and other commercial interests, who exploit personal information for private gain, the government can be trusted to use such data appropriately. She maintains that issuing a national ID card—which would include each U.S. resident’s name, address, photo, and finger- or palm print—would be superior to other efforts to combat terrorism, such as ethnic profiling and airport passenger searches. Carlson is...