Yes, because the federal government can't assume that everyone has an ID, since they don't issue a universal ID. Any attempt to fix the fact that Americans don't have universal federal identification has met stiff resistance from a variety of angles, from privacy proponents to religious nuts who think universal identification is the mark of the beast.

It ties into why we still have to register for the draft (despite not having a draft since the 70s, and being no closer to instituting one than any other western country), and why our best form of universal identification (the Social Security card) is a scrap of cardstock with the words "not to be used for identification" written on it.

So, there's no universal ID, it's illegal to mandate people have ID, and freedom of movement within the United States has been routinely upheld as a core freedom. Thus, no ID required for domestic flights.

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booleandilemma 7 minutes ago | parent | next [-]

It feels to me like the more into the future we get the more backwards these policies seem. Bring on the national ID, I say.

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4 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

[deleted]

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aboardRat4 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

>Yes, because the federal government can't assume that everyone has an ID

But this does not have to be a federal ID. Could be just any ID.

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Izikiel43 6 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

> Yes, because the federal government can't assume that everyone has an ID, since they don't issue a universal ID.

I'm from a 3rd world country and we have a national id, the usa is weird in the strangest things.

	▲	OkayPhysicist 5 hours ago \| parent \| next [-]
		It's a deep-seated cultural paranoia that the federal government is out to get us. Initially, the US tried to be a confederation like the EU or Canada, but it turned out that we needed slightly more federal power than that to stay as a unified country. But the tension between "loose coalition of independent states" and "unified government that grants some powers to the states" is a pretty fundamental theme throughout US politics.
	▲	carefulfungi 4 hours ago \| parent \| prev \| next [-]
		Among the man weird corners of US national ID politics, is the set of Americans who think a national ID is an unforgivable invasion of liberty but that an ID should be required to vote.
	▲	5 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		[deleted]