WASHINGTON, D.C., Feb. 4, 2007
States Buck Fed Plan For National ID
Citing Privacy Concerns, $11B Cost, A Dozen States Oppose Real ID Law; Congress May Repeal
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One goal of Real ID is to unify states' disparate licensing rules and make it harder to fraudulently obtain a card. But Real ID will also be required for other purposes — for example, airport screeners won't let you board a plane without one. (CBS)
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The Maine Legislature on Jan. 26 overwhelmingly passed a resolution objecting to the Real ID Act of 2005. The federal law sets a national standard for driver's licenses and requires states to link their record-keeping systems to national databases.
Within a week of Maine's action, lawmakers in Georgia, Wyoming, Montana, New Mexico, Vermont and Washington state also balked at Real ID. They are expected soon to pass laws or adopt resolutions declining to participate in the federal identification network.
"It's the whole privacy thing," said Matt Sundeen, a transportation analyst for the National Conference of State Legislatures. "A lot of legislators are concerned about privacy issues and the cost. It's an estimated $11 billion implementation cost."
The law's supporters say it is needed to prevent terrorists and illegal immigrants from getting fake identification cards.
States will have to comply by May 2008. If they do not, driver's licenses that fall short of Real ID's standards cannot be used to board an airplane or enter a federal building or open some bank accounts.
The law was introduced as a rider to a military spending bill in 2005 by Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner (R-Wisc.).
About a dozen states have active legislation against Real ID, including Arizona, Georgia, Hawaii, Massachusetts, Missouri, New Hampshire, Oklahoma, Utah and Wyoming.
Missouri state Rep. James Guest, a Republican, formed a coalition of lawmakers from 34 states to file bills that oppose or protest Real ID.
"This is almost a frontal assault on the freedoms of America when they require us to carry a national ID to monitor where we are," Guest said in an interview Saturday. "That's going too far."
Guest introduced a resolution last week opposing Real ID and said he expects it quickly to pass the Legislature. "This does nothing to stop terrorism," he said. "Don't burden the American people with this requirement to carry this ID."
Though most states oppose the law, some such as Indiana and Maryland are looking to comply with Real ID, Sundeen said.
The issue may be moot for states if Congress takes action.
Republican Sen. John Sununu of New Hampshire, along with Democratic Sen. Daniel Akaka of Hawaii, filed a bill last year to repeal the law. Sununu expects similar legislation will be introduced soon.
"The federal government should not be in charge of defining and issuing drivers' licenses," Sununu said in a statement.
Privacy advocates say a national driver's license will promote identity theft.
Barry Steinhardt, a lawyer with the American Civil Liberties Union, said the Real ID ordered by Congress would require a digital photo and probably a fingerprint on each driver's license or state-issued ID card. That, he said, will make it more valuable to identity thieves because the ID card will be accepted as much more than a driving credential.
"It's going to be a honey pot out there that's going to be irresistible to identity thieves," Steinhardt said.
An identity thief, he said, could buy a Real ID from a rogue motor vehicle department employee with is own photo and fingerprint on it.
"The victim is never going to be able to undo this," Steinhardt said.
Other criticisms include:
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Michelle Obama tells how her role as the First Lady has changed her perspective.
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See all 69 CommentsSo, if they don't let me on a plane, open a bank account,then they will loose my business and so will everyone else stop flying, opening bank accounts and so on. this is just to watch you and what you do.
they want to put RFID chips into our money, so that they will know where you spend and what you purchase. It isn't about the illegls, it's about cheap labor and hoping that you don't notice what's happening.
Remember, buy as much ammo and guns that you can to protect yourself from our dictator Bush.
So, if they don't let me on a plane, open a bank account,then they will loose my business and so will everyone else stop flying, opening bank accounts and so on. this is just to watch you and what you do.
they want to put RFID chips into our money, so that they will know where you spend and what you purchase. It isn't about the illegls, it's about cheap labor and hoping that you don't notice what's happening.
Remember, buy as much ammo and guns that you can to protect yourself from our dictator Bush.
~ U.S. Constitution 10th Amendment
"The true theory of our Constitution is surely the wisest and best, that the States are independent as to everything within themselves, and united as to everything respecting foreign nations. Let the General Government be reduced to foreign concerns only... and our General Government may be reduced to a very simple organization, and a very inexpensive one; a few plain duties to be performed by a few servants."
~ Thomas Jefferson
"Federally imposed standards for drivers license and birth certificates make a mockery of federalism and the 10th amendment. While states technically are not forced to accept the federal standards, any refusal to comply would mean their residents could not get a job, receive Social Security, or travel by plane. So rather than imposing a direct mandate on the states, the federal government is blackmailing them into complying with federal dictates."
~ Ron Paul
"a few plain duties to be performed by a few servants." Not the Corporate Dictatorship Central Government we have today, that has the audacity to refer to the Constitution as "just a ******* piece of paper."
How is a national ID unconstitutional or causes any kind of loss of freedom. Most children are finger printed in elementary school, at least when I was that age, your picture is already on your DL and you already have a SS #. The only thing that will change is that everyone's ID will look the same and your information will be easier to obtain, saving taxpayers money and making it easier to identify criminals from out of state.
This ID card is not really a privacy concern, we surrendered our right to privacy dozens of years ago.
"This is not as bad an idea as the previous comments claim. Currently each state has it's own drivers license. Someone serving alcohol that is presented with an out of state drivers license can easily be fooled into serving a minor."
Well I'd MUCH rather take my chances that a few eager teens get an illicit beer that to have even MORE of my freedoms being assassinated by King Bush and the PuppetMaster. They have no rights to our privacies and they have no scruples when it comes to anything.
Why don't we just tattoo our national ID numbers on our arms. Maybe we can tattoo a barcode too to make it really easy for our masters.
-- Sinclair Lewis, 1935
"If Tyranny and Oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy."
-- James Madison
"The means of defense against foreign danger historically have become the instruments of tyranny at home."
-%u2013 James Madison
"I believe there are more instances of the abridgement of freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments by those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations."
-- James Madison
"As nightfall does not come all at once, neither does oppression. In both instances, there is a twilight when everything remains seemingly unchanged. And it is in such twilight that we all must be most aware of change in the air - however slight - lest we become unwitting victims of the darkness."
-- Justice William O. Douglas
"Certainly one of the chief guarantees of freedom under any government, no matter how popular and
respected, is the right of citizens to keep and bear arms.... The right of citizens to bear arms is just one guarantee against arbitrary government, one more safeguard against the tyranny which now appears remote in America but which historically has proven to be always possible."
-- Hubert H. Humphrey
This is easy.
All you have to do is to tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifist for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in every country."
- Hermann Goering(Adolf Hitler's Reich-Marshall) at the Nuremberg Trials after WWII
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