Ilove going out without any papers. That’s because I am unlikely to be asked for them.

In a proper country, which is what we were until a few days ago, everyone has the right to walk around without papers — driver license, passport, birth certificate, Social Security card — unless they are necessary for the task at hand.

If I am driving, I take my license. If not, I don’t. But now, the United States Supreme Court has ruled, federal agents can stop and roust people based on their race, language, job or location. They can be asked for their papers, which, this being the freest, most open, most confident nation in the world, they don’t have to have.

Except that now they do. In Los Angeles, at least.

Supreme Court supermajority motto: “Today, L.A. Tomorrow, from California to the New York

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