Montana and Washington have passed laws refusing to comply with the federal government's Real ID Act
Posted by Bruce E. H. Johnson
The Real ID Act has been described by Crosscut columnist Skip Berger as creating "what is in essence America's first national identity card using driver's licenses that could be embedded with computer chips and biometric information, such as fingerprints. It has been proposed that such cards be required of every citizen who wants to drive, access government buildings, apply for federal benefits, or fly on commercial aircraft. Management of the vast databases would fall to each state's department of motor vehicles."
On April 18, Washington's Democratic governor Chris Gregoire signed the Washington bill, stating "This is another unfunded mandate from the federal government and, even worse, it doesn't protect the privacy of the citizens of Washington." As the Seattle Post-Intelligencer noted:
The new state law says Washington will not implement the new Real ID system unless: Uncle Sam foots the bill, the government takes steps to ensure that privacy and data security concerns are addressed, and the system doesn't place unreasonable costs or record-keeping burdens on the average citizen.
The Washington law follows in the wake of Montana's similar ejection of the federal law. On April 17, Montana enacted a state law refusing compliance with Real ID. In signing the bill, Gov. Brian Schweitzer said that the new law reflected the views of Montanans, who "don't think that bureaucrats in Washington D.C. ought to tell us that if we're going to get on a plane we have to carry their card, so when it's scanned through they know where you went, when you got there and when you came home."
"This is still a free country and there are no freer people than the people that we have in Montana,’’ he added. Montana's rejection was the first in the United States to refuse implementation outright.
Other states considering such rejections include Oregon and Alaska, while Maine, Arkansas, and Idaho have already passed resolutions opposing implementation.
The Anchorage Daily News has recommended that the state legislature reject "Real ID and its stricter license requirements, a bad idea that caught a ride into law on a 2005 appropriations bill for the war in Iraq and tsunami relief. Rejected by Congress in 2004, REAL ID passed in the budget bill without a single hearing. That's probably the only way it could have passed."
As we have noted in prior blogposts, the Maine resolution was passed in recognition of a $185 million unfunded mandate. Despite these costs, many commentators believe that the law will not improve Americans' security significantly.
For a useful analysis of the Real ID law, and a summary of various anti-Real ID state laws, check EPIC's website.