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You mean getting a bill passed to solidify either “DMV respects common names” or “DMV entitled to do what they want”, so that either way we're not stuck squinting at a 1982 court case and trying to guess whether a lawsuit is warranted?
(But I do agree with @Rov_Scam: with the law as it stands, it seems more likely that the ACLU would address a case of actual anti-transgender discrimination by the judge by simply making the judge do the thing, rather than making the DMV do the thing, if only because it would be a more valuable ideological win.)
Yeah. Right now it seems to be "this section of the code says A, that section says B, who gets to juggle the hot potato?" Either go to court so a judge makes a ruling or the state legislature clears this up. What is happening right now is ripe for all kinds of problems.
We are “ripe for” exactly 3 outcomes that I can see: (1) situation stands, sovcits suffer slightly; (2) a lawsuit is filed, probably by the ACLU; or (3) someone opens this can of worms in the legislature.
You seemingly named the latter two as desired outcomes, and I don't get the impression you consider the first outcome to be particularly problematic, so I'm interested to see what “all kinds of problems” you scry here... Am I misreading you? Do you actually sympathize with the plight of a person who wants to change their name, but isn't eligible or can't be bothered to file for a $50 name change?
Or do you just mean that the situation cannot stand, and every possible outcome is going to be slightly problematic?
If they can't be bothered, why should I be bothered to address them by their new cool name? OP seems (and apologies if I'm misrepresenting them) to be saying "why can't I just get a driver's licence in my new name of Biggus Dickus, the Alabama law says a common law name is good enough, the mean ol' DMV wants a legal piece of ID stating this is my name and that's infringing on my freedoms".
Well yesterday I read a news report about a woman who faked her own death, claimed to be her own sister in order to do so, and did all this name changing stunt in order to avoid going to court over fraud charges. If this specimen could just rock up to the local tax office and go "Hi, my name which I am commonly known by is Susie Susan, new licence I can use as legal ID please", you think she'd avoid doing that?
The hard cases are "the people who want to change their name but aren't eligible", the reality is "some sex offender or fraudster" attempting to have multiple IDs in multiple names.
You're claiming that the law as it stands leaves too much opportunity for fraud, we should just abolish the common law name change doctrine, and the DMV is actually kinda doing the right thing here by (illegally) refusing CL name changes and we don't even know how much crime they're prevented by doing so?
The picture you paint is a strawman. I simply argue that Alabama could—and in fact should, even if it takes a lawsuit to effect them getting off their ass about it—adopt a process like the one the U.S. passport office has adopted for validating & legitimating common law name changes. It's possible to create a paper trail without sticking the little thumbtack of “this is a discretionary license, you fucking peasant” in there, and that this thumbtack has been stuck in by executive fiat, rather than due process is my complaint.
Until it happens. I've worked in places where legal ID was needed for processing claims and in some cases getting it was worse than pulling teeth, and it was deliberately so on the part of the claimant because they wanted to dodge the cops, other government departments investigating fraud, etc.
EDIT: "You're claiming that the law as it stands leaves too much opportunity for fraud"
I'm pretty much betting this is the exact reason the Alabama DMV ignores the law as it stands, by your accounting, and asks for proper legal ID because they've seen one too many cases of fraud, selling ID, etc. using licences taken out in names alleged to be "this is the name everyone calls me". There are reasons for why public service departments do things, they may not always be good reasons, but there are reasons and not just "we're doing this because fuck the public is why". Even if it's only CYA on their part and they're trying to ensure "look for legal ID before you issue a licence, that way if there's a problem down the line over who the person really is, we are not in trouble".
"This will never happen" is the claim I've heard too many times by now. For all the people who just want their driver's licence in the name everyone calls them, you'll get ten fakers and fraudsters. Should the Alabama DMV do as you ask, just wait for the first news report of "Biggus Dickus in car crash" about the guy who took out his licence in a joke name, has no insurance, and refuses to give any other name other than the one on his licence. Then you can explain why you were so sure this would never ever happen.
The uninsured cause car crashes all the time, even as it stands. It happened to me, and it happened to many people I know.
If you want to make the case that the DMV's refusal to accept common law name changes is somehow preventing this from happening more often than it does, then please make that case instead of just painting dramatic vignettes about how “it would be bad if a deadbeat caused a crash (and also that deadbeat had recently got a common law name change)”.
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