The idea of anonymity has gotten a bad name. People often feel that you only need to be anonymous when you have something to hide. But anonymity is actually the norm in many aspects of our lives. Every time to pay for something with cash, you are engaging in an anonymous transaction. You walk down the street, drive your car along roads, mail letters, all anonymously.

We are beginning to experience a world in which fewer of our mundane, daily actions are anonymous. Yet the courts have affirmed that anonymous speech has a role in democracy in their ruling that supports anonymous political speech.