Dare County wants to see your papers
Providing the rest of the USA with an object lesson in how not to react to a pandemic, Dare County, North Carolina, has established checkpoints on all roads crossing the county borders, at which travelers must show their papers to enter the county.
Pursuant to a series of emergency declarations issued by the Dare County Board of Commissioners, law enforcement officers are demanding that each person seeking to enter the county show either a government-issued ID card with an address in Dare County, or both some other government-issued photo ID and a county-issued entry permit.
A Federal lawsuit has been filed, seeking to have this enjoined as unconstitutional (at least as applied to the named plaintiffs). But as discussed below, the lawsuit barely scratches the surface of the issues this raises.
Why is Dare County doing this? What’s wrong with this ID requirement? Is it legal?