SSN Policy Manual

Dealing with State and County Agencies

State, or local agency from enforcing laws or regulations adopted after January 1, 1975 that require a social security number from people. When you complete an application for a hunting or fishing license, leave any space that asks for a social security number blank. Tell the clerk that you have no social security number if they ask for it. Serve a copy of the Notice Regarding Disclosure of Social Security Number card, provided at the beginning of this section on the clerk if they tell you that they cannot process your application. This serves to notify them that they will be held personally and criminally liable for violating the law and for violating your rights. Given this notice, the clerk will usually process the form. Verify the Applicable Law It is important to read the applicable laws because these laws often specify something very different from what you are being told. For example, in California most Department of Motor Vehicle clerks believe that the law requires an applicant for a California driver's license or identification card to provide their social security account number because the law reads: (a) The applicant's true full name, age, sex, mailing address, residence address, and social security number. California Vehicle Code (CVC) $1 2800 Notice that this code is not requiring an applicant to provide a number . . . the code simply states that the application (form) shall contain fields for "the following information." It is very similar to CVC $1653.5: (a) Every form prescribed by the department for use by an applicant for the issuance or renewal by the department of a driver's license or identification card pursuant to Division 6 (commencing with Section 12500) shall contain a section for the applicant's social security account number. When we read the actual "requirement" to include a social security number, we discover that it is qualified with a strange phrase: "Notwithstanding any other provision of law . . ." (a) Notwithstanding any other provision of law, the department shall require every application for a driver's license to contain the applicant's social security number and any other number or identifier determined to be appropriate by the department. CVC s12800.1 'Wotwithstanding any other provision of law . . ." is a strange phrase to find in the law because of what it means, that is:

Despite any law to the contrary . . . Despite any law that says we can't . . .

Regardless of what other laws might say . . . You must obey the law, but we don't have to . .

The reason this phase is added to the law is because California's attempt to require a social security number does violate other provisions of law, such as provided for in Section 7 of