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Carmichael v.United States

Charter to be published soon

Phone: (757) 850-1245

P.O. Box 4096
Hampton, Virginia
23664-0096

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They won't live by the numbers

     HAMPTON -- The case on the Hampton Circuit Court docket last week looked simple enough - a woman appealing a lower court's conviction of driving without a valid license.     But the reason she doesn't carry a license is based on a belief that one's Social Security number is the so-called number of the beast referred to in the Bible. It's a belief that Leslie Carmichael's husband, David, has held since the mid-1990s, when he said God spoke to him. It was then that David Carmichael began a quest to disassociate himself from his Social Security number and to have his family do the same.
     The quest has cost the 42-year-old Hampton resident his job as a Navy chief petty officer, threatened his financial security and gotten him in trouble with the law. "I'm in a situation," David Carmichael said, "where I have to choose to forsake God's mandate or the laws of man."
     Carmichael's stance on Social Security numbers is not unprecedented, said Robert Gellman, a privacy and information policy consultant in Washington, D.C. There are others who have gone to court over the matter - but Gellman knows of no one who has prevailed. In California, a Los Angeles judge ruled in 1997 that the DMV there had to accommodate five men who contended that Social Security numbers were the "mark of the beast." But that decision later was overturned. "The beliefs in some cases are very strongly held," Gellman said. "There's a tension here, and it's not fully resolved."
     The Carmichaels, who have been married for 19 years, said they do not want to be considered religious fanatics. Rather, they want to be seen as people willing to stand up for their convictions. In the meantime, though, they continue to adjust to a life different from the one they once lived. And for the past few years, the family has been fighting the legal system on several fronts. In 1998, David Carmichael sued the Navy, claiming it didn't follow its own procedures when it discharged him after he asked for a religious accommodation not to use his Social Security number as his military identification number.
     As that case continues to wind its way through federal court, the Carmichaels are now fighting the Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles over a requirement that they provide Social Security numbers in order to get drivers' licenses. In Chapter 13 of the Bible's Book of Revelation, the number of the anti-Christ, or beast, is 666. However, some interpret the "mark of the beast" as an identification number without which no one could buy or sell. Through prayer, Carmichael said, he came to believe that a Social Security number was, in fact, the number of the beast.
     The Social Security system was created in the 1930s to track Americans' earnings and provide a method for delivering benefits in retirement. Since then, it has become a personal identification system. You can't work without one. You can't claim an IRS exemption for your children if they don't have one. For almost every financial purpose, from banking to getting a mortgage, a Social Security number is needed.
     "Is doing all those things necessary for life in America a benefit for participating in Social Security?" Carmichael asked. There is no law that says a person has to have a Social Security number, but it's almost impossible to function without one in modern society, Gellman said. The Social Security Administration agrees. "For a lot of things in normal American life, you have to have one," said Mark Hinkle, a spokesman for the administration. Not using a number would be a personal choice, he said. But it could mean a person might have to do without some service or product, including a driver's license, he said.
     On Oct. 1, 1996, Carmichael wrote to the Social Security Administration to request that any application ever made for him be rescinded. He also refused any benefits from the Social Security program for himself, his wife and their children. From that moment, his life changed. After 16 years in the Navy, Carmichael refused to sign a reenlistment contract as long as it contained his Social Security number and instead swore a verbal oath that he would fulfill his obligation to the Navy. He was unlawfully discharged in March 1997 against his will, according to his complaint. He sued the U.S. government for more than $700,000, including lost wages and retirement benefits through his intended completion of service date in 2000, claiming that the Navy wrongfully discharged him and failed to follow procedure when it denied his request for religious accommodation. When the case was dismissed, Carmichael took it to the U.S. Court of Appeals. The appellate court ruled that Carmichael's case should not have been dismissed and sent it back to the lower court. Carmichael is now waiting for an answer to the complaint, said his Chesapeake attorney, Herb Titus.
     A different case is making the rounds of Hampton Circuit Court. In 2002, Carmichael lost an appeal over driving without a license. Now, his wife is trying to beat a similar rap. In October, she was stopped for speeding and got a ticket for not having a license. She was convicted in General District Court and appealed the decision. Last week, Titus filed a motion to dismiss the case, which will be heard next month. "The Social Security number has nothing to do with the safety of the people on the roadway," Titus said. "It's one of those things we've allowed to happen in America. Now it's turned into a number that everybody has to have."
     Neither of the Carmichaels has carried a driver's license since 2002, when their efforts to renew their licenses failed because the DMV required their Social Security numbers be on file even if they weren't on the cards. The commissioner of the Virginia DMV has written to Carmichael saying that the agency can't remove his and his wife's Social Security numbers unless the Social Security Administration or a court order says that their numbers don't belong to them or that they never have been associated with them. "I don't think that we have religious liberty anymore," Carmichael said.
     For now, David Carmichael and his family just try to get along without using Social Security numbers. David Carmichael runs an educational Christian ministry that provides computer training in exchange for an opportunity to share an evangelical message. He makes a living through donations from people who have heard about his efforts. His wife home-schools their four children, the younger of whom have never had Social Security numbers.
     The couple doesn't have a bank account, but they do have a credit card - Carmichael said he explained his situation to a telemarketer who called to say he was preapproved and was issued one anyway.
     Tom Schutt, the administrative pastor at Restoration Church in Hampton, said the church supports the Carmichaels, although some people have complained about them driving without a license. While Schutt doesn't personally share the interpretation about Social Security numbers, he said there is a need for Carmichael's principles to be heard. "If this is my conviction, I'm stuck with it," David Carmichael said. "This is eternal. You may disagree with me. By faith, that's fine. But is the whole system going to eliminate me?"

Staff researcher Pernell Watson contributed to this story.

Kim O'Brien Root can be reached at 928-6473 or by e-mail at kroot@dailypress.com