Do people really have the right to anonymity?
Yes. People going about their lawful business cannot be compelled to identify themselves. And this protection extends even further when the people are engaged in activities protected under the Constitition. For example, anonmyous publishing and pamphelteering has been upheld in many Supreme Court cases. In Talley v. California (1960), the Supreme Court threw out an ordinance that required the distributor of flyers to print their name and address on them. The Court stated that “It is plain that anonymity has sometimes been assumed for the most constructive purposes.” The Supreme Court explicitly recognized the value of anonymity in the context of freedom of association in NAACP v. Alabama ex rel Patterson (1958), a case in which the NAACP refused to turn over its membership list, to protect the members from being harrassed. In that decision the Court held, among other things, that to require individuals to step forward and be identified to assert their free-association rights would be,
Yes. People going about their lawful business cannot be compelled to identify themselves. And this protection extends even further when the people are engaged in activities protected under the Constitition. For example, anonmyous publishing and pamphleteering has been upheld in many Supreme Court cases. In Talley v. California (1960), the Supreme Court threw out an ordinance that required the distributor of flyers to print their name and address on them. The Court stated that “It is plain that anonymity has sometimes been assumed for the most constructive purposes.” The Supreme Court explicitly recognized the value of anonymity in the context of freedom of association in NAACP v. Alabama ex rel Patterson (1958), a case in which the NAACP refused to turn over its membership list, to protect the members from being harrassed. In that decision the Court held, among other things, that to require individuals to step forward and be identified to assert their free-association rights would be,
