Federal ID plan raises privacy concerns

[OneAngryDemocrat]

Source: CNN

(CNN) -- Americans may need passports to board domestic flights or to picnic in a national park next year if they live in one of the states defying the federal Real ID Act.

The act, signed in 2005 as part of an emergency military spending and tsunami relief bill, aims to weave driver's licenses and state ID cards into a sort of national identification system by May 2008. The law sets baseline criteria for how driver's licenses will be issued and what information they must contain.

The Department of Homeland Security insists Real ID is an essential weapon in the war on terror, but privacy and civil liberties watchdogs are calling the initiative an overly intrusive measure that smacks of Big Brother.

More than half the nation's state legislatures have passed symbolic legislation denouncing the plan, and some have penned bills expressly forbidding compliance.
States have the right to refuse to comply with the program, he said, and they also have the right to continue issuing IDs and driver's licenses that don't meet Real ID requirements.

But, Bill Walsh, senior legal fellow for the Heritage Foundation, a Washington-based conservative think tank that supports the Real ID Act, said, "any state that's refusing to implement this key recommendation by the 9/11 Commission, and whose state driver's licenses are as a result used in another terrorist attack, should be held responsible."





Read more: http://edition.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/08/16/real.id/index.html

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Doesn't this Act violate the Constitution's Fourteenth Amendment?

I mean, these folks have said they are going to treat US citizens differnetly from one another, based on where they are from...

"All persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws."

Please visit my anti-war web page, www.shockedandawful.com

[hobbit709]

1. When has bushco let the Constitution slow them down?

[OlWiseRedEye]

2. Orwell

I once read this book called 1984...

[bpeale]

3. good way to get out of jury duty & other stuff!!!

[1monster]

4. Papiere, bitte.

[Bacchus39]

5. I have a passport

that is certainly a National ID. I know many countries in latin america have the cédula which is the national ID. Frankly, it doesn't bother me much.

[flaminbats]

11. it bothers me..

when I get my driver's license, I have to pass a driving test..and have something to show the cops if I get caught speeding. my Social Security card makes me eligible for something I pay taxes for, when I become old or disabled. when I get my passport, I obtain the right to visit countries which otherwise wouldn't let me in!

what do I get with my national ID card, my Constitutional rights?

[HuffleClaw]

6. "as part of an emergency military spending and tsunami relief bill"

hmmmmmm

[sarcasmo]

7. Papers, please.

I want my Country back.

[Feral Libertarian]

8. And we still will have to....

... press 1 for English

[sarcasmo]

9. AS well as choosing English or Spanish at your local ATM.

Welcome to D/U.

[cparke]

10. Unconstitional REAL ID

I think Real ID is unconstitutional because:

It infringes on the 10th amendment's right of the states to exclusive use of powers not delegated to the federal government (i.e. which includes driver licensing). Although the law purports to make Real ID compliance optional for the states by providing the alternative of no federal acceptance if the state doesn't comply, more close reading reveals that state compliance is considered mandatory by this federal law and "non-acceptance for federal official purposes" is imposed as a penalty on the state's residents if the state does not comply. Under this scenario, I think the law exceeds the federal government's constitutional authority,

It is reassuring that there are some states getting ready to stand up to it, though it is not clear if or when one of them will take the issue to the Supreme Court. Would be better if Congress just undid the law before that has to happen.