We had friends over this weekend who are going to Hawaii on their honeymoon at the end of the month. After we raved about our recent trip there, showed them our pictures and looked over the itinerary, the wife asked "Do we need to bring our passports?"

{facepalm}

So she passed the test

I was at the Mall of America a number of years ago. All of the bars/clubs on the top floor had big signs listing the type of ID that would be accepted to prove that one is 21 years of age, and all specifically said that while foreign passports were fine, US passports were not. When I asked why, I was told "US passports are not ID in the US."

Unless there is black letter law on this, why wouldn't it be considered discrimination based on national origin?

LOL very good

We have an OMNI thread about some places who won't accept any passports as ID. At least that message is more clear: no furriners, period.

Someone shows a bouncer a passport from Kerplakistan, he has no clue is it's real or not or what it says. Bouncer says, no I can't accept this. The next day bar gets sued for violating the civil rights of the Kerplakistani citizen.

To avoid all this, you put a blanket no passports accepted as ID, including American ones.

Exactly. No furriners, we don't want yer kind here. Only the Americans can thus enter the bar, or at least the ones who drive and have a license with them. There are even anecdotes about places that go even farther: no one from out-of-state allowed.

I'd love to be able to say this stuff only happens in <insert whatever state you think is the most ignorant and backwards here>, but it seems to happen even in places like CA and NY.

Since we're a bit off-topic, I will add my question.

Guam is a U.S. territory, so I assume that one wouldn't need a passport to fly there from a U.S. state, but recently I came across the Guam - CNMI Visa Waiver Program, which allows citizens of certain countries that are not eligible for visa waiver to the U.S. states (e.g., Malaysia, Papua New Guinea) to travel without a visa to Guam (and the Northern Mariana Islands).

So if they don't check passports, what would prevent a Malaysian from traveling to Guam and then taking a domestic flight to the U.S. mainland or Hawaii? I suppose that if one provides one's passport as ID at check-in, and that passport is Malaysian, then the airline would check it for a U.S. visa? Is it possible for a Malaysian to have some other form of ID that would be accepted for check-in? I am sure that this is not a back door to enter the U.S., but I am curious how it works. Does Guam, unlike U.S. states, have passport control for departing passengers?

That was Sean Connery's fault.

Not exactly exit control, but there's immigration preclearance for HNL--the only nonstop stateside flight out of GUM. Two gates are enabled for that purpose and one will be in use every morning. Right before you board there's a cBP inspection. Passports are not mandatory; just anything proving stateside admissibility will suffice. At HNL, a Cbp inspection awaits GUM passengers. There's no other international flights that time of day, so only customs and agriculture are staffed.

At GUM, you're required to show up at the gate a certain number of minutes (IIRC 45) ahead of departure. Boarding passes are scanned before you enter the gate waiting area, so if you don't "board" the lounge in time, they'll offload your bags.

Also since US passports are good for 10 years, a 27 year old can have a picture in there of him when he was 17. Since appearence can change radically in ten years, it can be hard for someone to determine if the image in the passport is a representation of the person in front of you. It would be very easy for someone under age to grab their big brother's or sister's passport and pass that off as them 10 years ago.

NYS does not update photos on drivers licenses. NYS drivers licenses now are good for 8 years, add in a few renewals, the photo on the DL (like mine is now) could easily be 15+ years old--so why would the DL photo ID be better than a pp's?
[previously some renewals were 4 or 6 years.]

Except for American Samoa, even US citizens need a passport to enter.

this will never happen, because the states have the power to determine what constitutes a valid ID (although they cannot arbitrarily restrict who can and can't get an ID). there are many places within the US where a passport is not considered a valid ID.