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Fake IDs are normally used by people whose genuine IDs would be rejected (e.g., minors entering a bar), but this made me wonder:

What happens if you carry around & use a fake state ID (plain ID, NOT a fake driver's license) when you aren't otherwise breaking any rules, and when your normal ID would've been accepted just fine?

One motivation for this might for privacy purposes, because a genuine IDs often contains personal information that really isn't the establishment's business, such as your home address, weight, organ-donation status, ID number, etc.

Is carrying around & using an ID solely for such purposes illegal?

user541686
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1 Answers1

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It is illegal to create or use an unauthorized identification card for any purpose. Specifically, RCW 46.20.0921 provides that:

(1) It is a misdemeanor for any person:

(a) To display or cause or permit to be displayed or have in his or her possession any fictitious or fraudulently altered driver's license or identicard;

(c) To display or represent as one's own any driver's license or identicard not issued to him or her;

(3) It is unlawful for any person to manufacture, sell, or deliver a forged, fictitious, counterfeit, fraudulently altered, or unlawfully issued driver's license or identicard.... A violation of this subsection is:

(a) A class C felony if committed (i) for financial gain or (ii) with intent to commit forgery, theft, or identity theft; or

(b) A gross misdemeanor if the conduct does not violate (a) of this subsection.

The purpose is only relevant to the question of whether it's a felony or not. If not used for theft or other financial gain, the question will be whether it's considered forgery under RCW 9A.60.020:

(1) A person is guilty of forgery if, with intent to injure or defraud:

(a) He or she falsely makes, completes, or alters a written instrument or;

(b) He or she possesses, utters, offers, disposes of, or puts off as true a written instrument which he or she knows to be forged.

"Defraud" is not defined in this statute, but typically involves three elements: a misrepresentation, someone who reasonably relies on that misrepresentation, and a harm that they suffer as a result. In this case, fraud probably doesn't result, since there is no harm, but that's a fact-specific question I'd expect to see argued in court.

To summarize:

  • Using an ID card that you know has been altered is a misdemeanor.
  • Altering it yourself is at least a gross misdemeanor.
  • If anyone suffers a loss as a result, it may amount to forgery, a class C felony.

An aside: in your question, you draw a distinction between a driver's license and a state ID card, but at least in Washington, the law doesn't. All of the law concerning the driver's license as a general ID applies equally to non-license ID cards.

Cadence
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