[ourmandave]

> If the federal government runs it, now they have to own or rent a bunch of land in every major city in every state so they can service id card requests.

Don't we already have that with the post offices and the passport system?

Couldn't they expand passports into a Federal ID system?

[ghaff]

Sure. You could require every American to get at least a passport card. Maybe even waive fees for those below a certain income level.

I'm not qualified to comment on constitutional issues so I won't.

I will say that, even if it's mostly an emotional issue (people already need at least some sort of state government-issued ID to do lots of things), there's a huge resistance in the US to anything that smells like "papers, please" or universal ID that people are required to carry and present upon request.

Which is how a lot of people view the idea of a Federal ID system. That may seem silly to a lot of people outside the US but it's how things are.

[colejohnson66]

> there's a huge resistance in the US to anything that smells like "papers, please" or universal ID that people are required to carry and present upon request.

And yet, you are, under certain circumstances, already required to ID yourself to a police officer upon request.[0] The most common form of ID? Your driver's license.

[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stop_and_identify_statutes