Association to Stop Unconstitutional Fingerprinting
Wade Hobbs Letter to MEAF
11/7/00
5:00pm
Dear Mr. Tarbet:
The purpose of this e-mail is to present information to you concerning some
of the various fingerprints schemes around the world. My organization, the
Association to Stop Unconstitutional Fingerprinting (ASUF), was formed in
1997 to fund litigation against these schemes and to disseminate information
about them. I practice law here in Washington, DC and serve as the Director
of ASUF.
As of August, 1999, five states (California, Colorado, Georgia, Hawaii and
Texas) had statutes that require fingerprints for a driver's license. It is
our position that these statutes are unconstitutional. In addition, the
state of Florida imposes the fingerprints requirement informally without a
statute. The states of Alabama and Washington have rejected similar
fingerprints schemes. Though we do not have exact numbers, some 40 million
Americans have been fingerprinted simply because they wanted a driver's
license.
In Georgia, our suit to challenge the constitutionality of the fingerprints
statute has been delayed. The state government has requested that the
hearing originally scheduled for November 9, 2000 be postponed until late in
November. We have presented a number of arguments including one based on
the fundamental Right of Privacy under Georgia state law. On the
legislative front, it is worth noting that a majority of legislators
signed-on in favor of a 1999 bill that would have repealed the fingerprints
statute. Unfortunately, the bill was not allowed out of committee.
On the international level, Greece has recently altered its National ID by
abolishing requirements for information on fingerprints and religious
affiliation. In South Korea, the Catholic minority is protesting that
country's fingerprints requirement.
Though ASUF does not maintain a website, we do suggest the following useful
websites:
The U.S. holocaust memorial museum in
Washington; the "collections and archives" section has several examples of
fingerprint ID's that the Nazis imposed on Europe.
The Georgia Coalition to Repeal the Fingerprints
Law; also contains useful links to the efforts in Alabama and Washington
Dr. Lance's website which describes her ordeal
after she refused to give her fingerprint to state officials.
[A} company [that] apparently
produces ... the driver's licenses for several states ... [also produces]
the Rwanda
National ID, too. The Rwanda National ID in 1994 was instrumental in the
identification and slaughter of some 800,000 Tutsi people.
We hope this information will be useful to you. Good luck in your efforts
to change the Maine law. Please contact us again should you require further
assistance.
Sincerely yours,
Wade Hobbs
Director
ASUF
2121 K Street, NW, Suite 800
Washington, DC 20037
202-261-3530
uedo@hotmail.com
For new developments on the evolving story in Georgia, keep an eye on
Dr. Lance's page