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A Hampton couple who won't use Social Security numbers because of religious beliefs is still trying to get the DMV to issue driver's licenses.
http://www.dailypress.com/news/local/dp-73156sy0sep04,0,1181749.story?coll=dp-news-local-final
BY KIM O'BRIEN ROOT
928-6473
Published September 4, 2004
HAMPTON -- A Hampton couple who have been unable to get driver's licenses because they won't use their Social Security numbers tried again Friday.
David and Leslie Carmichael left the Hampton Department of Motor Vehicles after several hours without licenses in hand, but said they were encouraged by a clerk's efforts to help them through the process.
They're now planning to ask the DMV commissioner to grant them a waiver that would allow them to get licenses without having to have their Social Security numbers on file.
Neither of the Carmichaels has carried a license since 2002, when the DMV wouldn't let them renew their licenses without having their Social Security numbers. The couple believes the numbers are a sign of the anti-Christ talked about in the Bible's Book of Revelation - the so-called number of the beast - and they don't want to be identified by them.
"Asking us to associate with the anti-Christ's numbering scheme is asking us to forsake allegiance to God," David Carmichael wrote in a letter that was faxed to Commissioner D.B. Smit on Friday. "Thus, it is placing an obstacle to our obtaining driver's licenses that is impossible for us to overcome. It is an obstacle that has nothing to do with our being able to safely control an automobile."
The DMV has previously told the Carmichaels that while Social Security numbers don't have to appear on licenses, they're needed for record-keeping purposes. David Carmichael has also written to the Social Security Administration to rescind numbers for his family and refuse any benefits.
Not using the numbers has caused the couple and their family problems that go beyond not being able to get driver's licenses.
It cost David Carmichael his job as a Navy chief petty officer - a pending lawsuit against the Navy revolves around his request for a religious accommodation not to use his Social Security number as his military identification number.
The Carmichaels can't get a bank account and both have been convicted of driving without licenses. When Leslie Carmichael was charged last year, the case ended up in Hampton Circuit Court with her lawyer arguing the constitutionality of Social Security numbers.
The judge wouldn't address the constitutional issue and instead suggested Carmichael follow the DMV's administrative process.
That brought the Carmichaels to the DMV on Friday. They wanted to start from scratch in the application process to document each step.
The couple arrived at the DMV armed with fresh applications and affidavits from a pastor at their church affirming their religious convictions. On their applications, in the spot reserved for Social Security numbers, they wrote "religious exemption." Their 16-year-old daughter, who accompanied them, did the same in her application for a learner's permit.
DMV clerk Carrie Sustare looked over the paperwork and faxed it to DMV's headquarters in Richmond. After about 20 minutes, she told David Carmichael it appeared that the Social Security numbers were required, but that she'd be willing to fax the documents to the commissioner so he can make a decision on whether a waiver can be granted.
Carmichael was also told to handwrite a letter to the commissioner with his request.
"I have no guarantees," Sustare
told him.
"The fact that they're going to put some thought into it is a good
thing."
HAMPTON - A Hampton couple's attempt to disassociate themselves from their Social Security numbers because of their religious beliefs was dealt a legal setback Friday when a judge convicted Leslie Carmichael of driving without a valid license.
Neither Carmichael nor her husband have carried a driver's license since 2002, when the Department of Motor Vehicles refused to renew their licenses without Social Security numbers. Although the numbers aren't required to be on the licenses, the DMV told the Carmichaels the numbers were needed for record-keeping purposes.
The Carmichaels believe the Social Security number issued by the government is the sign of the anti-Christ talked about in the Bible's Book of Revelation. After David Carmichael came to that belief in the mid-1990s, he wrote to the Social Security Administration and asked that any applications for numbers for his family be rescinded.
His quest has cost him his job as a Navy chief petty officer, threatened his financial security and gotten him - and now his wife - in trouble with the law. In October, Leslie Carmichael, a stay-at-home mom who home-schools the couple's four children, was stopped for speeding and got a ticket for not having a license. She was convicted in Hampton General District Court and appealed the decision.
The case landed in Circuit Court on Friday before Judge Wilford Taylor Jr., who listened to attorney Herb Titus argue the constitutionality surrounding Social Security numbers before saying there wasn't much he could do at his level.
"This is not the court to hold a statute like this constitutional," Taylor said, suggesting that Carmichael first follow DMV's administrative review process.
Titus had argued that the DMV commissioner erred in not considering a waiver of the Social Security requirement when David Carmichael asked that he and his family be exempted from having to provide the numbers on driver's licenses applications. Under Virginia code, the commissioner has the authority to waive regulations on a case-by-case basis, Titus said.
Using words from the Virginia's act for religious freedom drafted by Thomas Jefferson in the 1700s, Titus argued that Carmichael has a constitutional right not to be "molested or burthened" because of her religious opinions.
"We have a religious conviction not to associate with Social Security numbers," Leslie Carmichael testified Friday. "It's something we walk every day in every area of life."
After declining to dismiss the case, effectively pushing the constitutional issue aside, Taylor was left to rule on whether Carmichael was driving without a valid license when she was stopped in Hampton last year. She confessed, the judge said. He convicted her on the charge and fined her $50.
Afterward, the Carmichaels said they're going to continue their fight. "We have no choice," David Carmichael said. "This is our life."
David Carmichael, who said he's heard from other Virginians who share similar beliefs, said he may consider a class-action suit against the DMV.
For more information about the Carmichaels' legal battles, visit www.christianliberty.org.
kroot@dailypress.com, 928-6473