Your fact-checks will appear here
Laws requiring individuals to identify themselves to law enforcement.
When an individual in the United States must identify themselves to police is not a single, nationwide rule but a patchwork of constitutional principles, state “stop-and-identify” statutes, and federa...
Carrying riot gear or gas masks in the United States is not uniformly illegal, but legal risk varies sharply by state and context: many jurisdictions have anti-mask statutes that criminalize concealin...
Legal protections for refusing to identify oneself during a police stop are a patchwork of constitutional rules and state statutes: the Supreme Court has allowed some “stop-and-identify” laws while re...
Refusing to show identification to police on a public street produces different legal consequences depending on where the encounter occurs and whether the officer has lawfully detained the person; sev...
The Supreme Court’s core framework governing when citizens can be required to show identification to police flows from Terry v. Ohio, which authorizes brief stops on reasonable suspicion, and from Hii...
Federal guidance and ICE policy generally require agents to carry credentials and identify themselves when legally necessary, but they also cite officer safety reasons for masking; state and local att...
The Supreme Court in Hiibel upheld a Nevada “stop-and-identify” law, ruling that a suspect can be compelled to disclose his name during a Terry investigatory stop when the disclosure is not reasonably...
The short answer: it depends—no single federal rule forces every person on the street to produce ID, but police can compel identification in specific circumstances and many states have “stop‑and‑ident...